“Inglourious Basterds” turns 15: See the cast, then and now

Catch up with Brad Pitt's band of Nazi hunters.

Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's version of a war film, with battlefield action replaced by backstage scheming, banter, and trickery amidst personal revenge plans and counter-plots.

Released in 2009, Basterds is one of the director’s most expertly crafted films, with long, suspenseful sequences that depend on dialogue to slowly ratchet up the tension. With a flair for brazen revisionism, Tarantino presents a fantasy of Jewish retribution on the Nazi High Command, including a finale that famously throws the history books out the window.

While star Brad Pitt was already well-known, the film was a launching pad for Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, and up-and-comer Michael Fassbender. Read on to find out what’s become of the Inglourious Basterds cast since their service in Tarantino's war.

Brad Pitt (Lt. Aldo "the Apache" Raine)

Brad Pitt played Lt. Aldo Raine, leader of the crack team of Jewish-American troops spreading terror throughout the Nazi regime.

Pitt's breakthrough role was the seductive drifter J.D. in Ridley Scott's crime drama Thelma and Louise (1991). He continued to steal scenes in A River Runs Through It (1992) and True Romance (1993) before sinking his teeth into Neil Jordan’s Interview With the Vampire (1994).

Pitt began his fruitful partnership with director David Fincher in the serial killer shocker Seven (1995) and earned his first Oscar nod for Terry Gilliam’s trippy time-travel yarn 12 Monkeys (1995). He was Edward Norton’s better half in Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), an unintelligible bare-knuckle boxer and scoundrel in Snatch (2000), and one-twelfth of the smoothest band of thieves you’ve ever seen in Ocean’s Eleven (2011).

What hasn’t he done since? Sexy assassin? Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005), check. Legendary outlaw? The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), check. Total airhead? Burn After Reading (2008), check. Baby? Old man? Check and check, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Pitt got his second Oscar nomination for that last one.

Following his stint in the Basterds, Pitt took another Oscar-nominated role, Billy Beane in 2011's biographical sports drama Moneyball, and captured strict mid-century fatherhood in The Tree of Life (2011). After appearing in the likes of Fury (2014) and The Big Short (2015), Pitt finally won an acting Academy Award for his role as stunt double Cliff Booth in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Pitt recently starred in the action comedy Bullet Train (2022) and the Hollywood rise-and-fall epic Babylon (2022). His next role will be in the buddy action-comedy Wolfs (2024), which he's producing with costar George Clooney.

Pitt dated actress Gwyneth Paltrow from 1994 to 1997; though the pair became engaged, they never wed. He married Jennifer Aniston in 2000, but they split in 2005. He then married Angelina Jolie in 2014 after nine years together. They later divorced in 2019. Pitt shares three biological children with Jolie — daughter Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne — and three adopted children: Maddox, Zahara, and Pax.

Mélanie Laurent (Shosanna Dreyfus)

Mélanie Laurent played Shosanna Dreyfus, a young Jewish woman who burns with a desire for revenge against the Nazi commander who murdered her family.

While Laurent had earned acclaim for her roles in French cinema, Inglourious Basterds was her first appearance in an American film. Most of her Basterds dialogue is in French, but she did have to learn some English for the role. The acclaimed performance led to more English-speaking parts, including the romantic drama Beginners (2010), opposite Ewan McGregor, and the magician caper Now You See Me (2013).

She starred with two Jake Gyllenhaals in Denis Villeneuve’s surreal chiller Enemy (2013), reunited with Basterds costar Brad Pitt in Angelina Jolie's drama By the Sea (2015), and returned to the Nazi-hunting business in 2018's Operation Finale, which dramatized the capture of former SS officer Adolf Eichmann. She then starred in Michael Bay's action thriller 6 Underground (2019), with Ryan Reynolds.

Laurent has also branched out as a director. Her first film was The Adopted (2011) and she earned strong acclaim for her follow-up, the coming-of-age drama Breathe (2014). Galveston (2018) was her first English-language film, and she recently helmed the French action comedy Wingwomen (2023) for Netflix.

Laurent married in 2013 but has never publicly revealed her husband's name. The pair have two children.

Christoph Waltz (Hans Landa)

Christoph Waltz plays the "Jew Hunter" Hans Landa, a charismatic, arrogant, and remorseless SS colonel who kills Shosanna’s entire family and helps organize the film premiere at her theater years later, figuring out the Basterds' assassination plot in the process.

Waltz was well known on the German stage and small screen before Quentin Tarantino cast him as the scene-stealing Landa. His extraordinary performance earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor — making him the first actor to win an Academy Award for a Tarantino film.

Waltz re-teamed with Tarantino in the Western-styled revenge epic Django Unchained (2012), playing the dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz. Tarantino wrote the part specifically for Waltz, and it garnered a second Oscar win for the actor.

Since his Basterds breakthrough, Waltz has been a mainstay on American screens. He searched for the meaning of life in Terry Gilliam's 2013 science-fiction film The Zero Theorem and got involved in a petty domestic squabble in Roman Polanski’s Carnage (2014). He put his persuasive charms to diabolical use in Tim Burton's Big Eyes (2014) and played Matt Damon’s hedonistic neighbor in the eco-satire Downsizing (2017).

Blockbusters have come calling as well: Waltz took on the mantle of Bond’s nemesis Blofeld in Spectre (2015), a devious diamond merchant in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), and a cyberpunk Geppetto in Alita: Battle Angel (2019).

Waltz's first marriage, to dance therapist Jacqueline Ranch, resulted in three children. His second wife is German costume designer Judith Holtz, with whom he shares a daughter.

Eli Roth (Sgt. Donny Donowitz)

Eli Roth plays Sgt. Donny Donowitz, "the Bear Jew" who terrorizes the Nazis by beating captured soldiers to death with a baseball bat.

Roth is primarily known as a director rather than an actor; Donowitz is his only major screen role. He began his directing career with the splatterfest horror comedy Cabin Fever (2002) followed by Hostel (2005), a gnarly thriller about young tourists who get captured, tortured, and murdered by patrons who pay top dollar for the privilege. Hostel was the first film to be dubbed "torture porn" and made a major splash at the box office, establishing Roth's place in modern horror. He also directed the sequel, Hostel: Part II (2007).

Tarantino invited Roth to play a small role in his Death Proof half of the double-feature Grindhouse (2007), for which Roth also directed one of the fake trailers, Thanksgiving, that played between the two films.

Roth later directed the cannibal horror film The Green Inferno (2013), followed by a pair of remakes: the Keanu Reeves-led Knock Knock (2015), based on Death Game (1977), and Death Wish (2018), based on the 1974 Charles Bronson hit. His next movie was a change of pace with the fantasy comedy The House with a Clock in its Walls (2018), starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett. This PG-rated entry was a mild box office success, but Roth soon returned to his horror roots for a feature-length version of Thanksgiving (2023). He then reunited with Blanchett and Black for the video game adaptation Borderlands (2024).

Roth married Chilean actress and model Lorenza Izzo in 2014; the couple split up five years later.

Michael Fassbender (Archie Hicox)

Michael Fassbender played the German-speaking British lieutenant Archie Hicox, who joins the Basterds for a dangerous, ill-fated undercover operation.

After working in television, including a part in the classic war miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), Fassbender made his film debut in Zack Snyder's comic book action epic 300 (2006). His first starring role was as famed, tragic IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008), for which he earned a slew of awards, followed by his part in Inglourious Basterds.

Fassbender's career took off from there, starring in Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation of Jane Eyre (2011) and the grueling sex-addict character study Shame (2011), before taking on Carl Jung, opposite Viggo Mortensen’s Freud, in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method (2011).

Mainstream recognition came, of course, in the form of a comic book role — namely, the conflicted antihero Magneto, a younger version of the character Ian McKellen brought to life, in the origin story X-Men: First Class (2011). The next summer, he stole every scene in Ridley Scott's 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus as the android David 8.

In 2013, Fassbender received his first Academy Award nomination for playing slave owner Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave. He lawyered up for the title role in Scott’s Cormac McCarthy-penned crime thriller The Counselor (2013) and spent a whole movie underneath a papier-maché mask in the comedy Frank (2014) before reprising his Marvel role in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). He earned his second Oscar nomination for playing the title role in Steve Jobs (2015) and tempted fate with a moody adaptation of Macbeth (2015), featuring Marion Cotillard as his Lady Macbeth.

After returning as Magneto in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and starring in the video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed (2016), he took on dual roles in Alien: Covenant (2017) and teamed up with Terrence Malick for Song to Song (2017). The actor then played an assassin in David Fincher’s The Killer (2023) and a soccer coach in Taiki Waititi’s underdog sports comedy Next Goal Wins (2023). Coming up, Fassbender will team up with Cate Blanchett in Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag (2025).

Fassbender has one son with Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, whom he married in 2017. They met on the set of The Light Between Oceans (2016) and will soon re-team on screen in South Korean auteur Na Hong-jin’s Hope (2025).

Diane Kruger (Bridget von Hammersmark)

Diane Kruger played German film star turned double agent Bridget von Hammersmark, who puts herself at risk by plotting with the Basterds to take down the Nazi leadership.

Kruger first became known for playing Helen of Troy in the historical epic Troy (2004) and Dr. Abigail Chase in the Nic Cage caper National Treasure (2004). She returned for the sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, in 2007.

Kruger has since bounced between American and European productions. She starred alongside Liam Neeson in the twisty psychothriller Unknown (2011) and hit the YA circuit with the Saoirse Ronan-led movie The Host (2014). She was Marie Antoinette opposite Lea Seydoux in Farewell, My Queen (2012), and Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother in The Better Angels (2014).

She earned best actress honors at Cannes for the tragic, terrorism drama In the Fade (2017) and re-teamed with Neeson for the Philip Marlowe potboiler, Marlowe (2022). In between all that, she played the lead detective in FX’s crime drama The Bridge (2013–2014). Next up is David Cronenberg’s newest film, The Shrouds (2024).

Kruger was married to French actor and director Guillaume Canet from 1999 to 2006. After a decade-long relationship with Joshua Jackson, she started dating actor Norman Reedus in 2016. The couple shares a daughter, Nova.

Daniel Brühl (Frederick Zoller)

Daniel Brühl played decorated German soldier Frederick Zoller, who recreates his own wartime exploits in a Nazi propaganda film, the premiere of which is the setting for Basterds’ explosive final segment.

Brühl is a German actor who gained a reputation in his home country for playing nice guys, and then came to America and started playing villains. While he had a small role in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), his complex performance in Inglourious Basterds was his true introduction to the American mainstream.

Brühl played famed Formula One driver Niki Lauda in Rush (2013), about his intense rivalry with James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), then appeared in WikiLeaks drama The Fifth Estate (2013) and the star-studded A Most Wanted Man (2014), from spy specialist John le Carré.

Marvel brought Brühl his largest audience yet, seeing him play the villainous Baron Zemo in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). After playing a real-life Nazi in the Jessica Chastain-led drama The Zookeeper's Wife (2017), he took to the small screen for the title role in the serial killer procedural The Alienist (2018–2020), starring with Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning.

Recently, he starred in the epic Netflix adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and played the lead in the miniseries Becoming Karl Lagerfeld (2024).

Brühl has been in a relationship with psychotherapist Felicitas Rombold since 2010; they have two sons.

Til Schweiger (Hugo Stiglitz)

Til Schweiger played Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, a rogue German soldier who became infamous for killing Gestapo officers. He eventually joined the Basterds to further indulge his thirst for righteous vengeance.

Schweiger is a German actor and filmmaker who debuted in the tragicomedy Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997). His 2007 romantic comedy Rabbit Without Ears is one of the most successful German films of the modern era.

Inglourious Basterds was Schweiger's first American film. Since then, he's appeared in the secret agent rom-com This Means War (2012), the romantic drama Charlie Countryman (2013), and David Leitch's spy thriller Atomic Blonde (2017). Recently, Schweiger was seen alongside Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson in Guy Ritchie’s WWII caper The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024).

Schweiger married American model Dana Carlsen in 1995; their union lasted until 2014. They have four children: Valentin, Luna, Lilli, and Emma.

B.J. Novak (Smithson Utivich)

B.J. Novak played a member of Aldo's squad, who's mildly irked when he finds out that his nickname among the German army is "The Little Man."

Novak was first known as ambitious temp employee Ryan Howard in the hit American version of The Office (2005–2013); he was also a writer for the show. After The Office ended, he appeared in Office costar Mindy Kaling's sitcom The Mindy Project (2013–2016) in a recurring role. He and Kaling also engaged in an on-again off-again relationship for many years.

On film, he and Jason Schwartzman played the Sherman brothers — known for writing countless classic Disney songs — in Saving Mr. Banks (2013), and he appeared in 2016's The Founder, a biopic about former McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. In 2022, Novak made his feature directorial debut with the Texas-set murder mystery Vengeance (2022).

Gedeon Burkhard (Wilhelm Wicki)

Gedeon Burkhard played Corp. Wilhelm Wicki, who accompanied Sgt. Stiglitz and Lt. Hicox for an ill-fated meeting with Bridget von Hammersmark in a basement pub.

Burkhard is a German film and television actor best known in his native country for the Austrian police drama series Kommissar Rex (1998–2001). Inglourious Basterds is his only American film so far. He also appeared in the Czech feature The Devil's Mistress (2016), a biographical film about Lída Baarová, the companion of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.