MovieChat Forums > Castle Keep (1969) Discussion > Astrid Heeren

Astrid Heeren

posted 20 years ago by mausermike63
12 replies | jump to latest

Ever since I saw this beauty in Castle Keep over thiry years ago, I've been wanting to find out more about her but have found little. Here are some tidbits that I know:

She was a model at one time. I recently found an old TV Guide issue dated August 14, 1970 and on page 14 is a Kotex advertisement with Heeren's image filling the page.

She was in an hour long short story broadcast on TV back in 1979. I can't remember the title but it was a story about an American Jew who was returning to post WWII Germany on a ski trip. He had been on the receiving end of an anti-semetic harrasment before the war and now years later has an encounter with the same individual. Heeren played the love interest and had a larger speaking role than her work in CASTLE KEEP or SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT. Thankfully this story was highlighted in one of TV Guide's "Close up" advertisements, else I probably would have missed it. It was a delight to see her face after some years. She still looked great in 1979!

An article from the Fall of '03 on the internet lists an Astrid Heeren in a stage play of MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM in Helmstedt, Germany. She's playing the role of Helena. I don't know if this is the same actress from CASTLE KEEP.

"Heer" in german means army. "Heeren" is the plural.

I think her heavy german accent was the hindrance to her career over here.

[–] joekiddlouischama 19 years ago

I agree ... one look at her in "Castle Keep" and she attracts you forever.

[–] smithfly 19 years ago

I read somewhere that she was Dutch by birth, but in any case she was/is absolutely luminous. If all girls looked like her there'd be no bachelor boys -- and lots more young mothers! Who cares about her accent? Or whether she ever says anything? I'd pay her just to stand around and light up the neighborhood.

[–] mauser98 18 years ago

She is of the sort, that is timeless. Gee I still have a soft spot for my favorite of favorit blonds of all time, Barbara Eden and that is getting close to 45 years and counting. For a long time Movies have been at best a disapointment to me. The work that was done between 1936 to 1966 and with some exceptions after 1966, is way better both in story and in acting that what passes today for a movie. Today its just poor remakes and computers. I wish that they would put some of the great ones restored, back on the Big Screen. To see Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen again would be a treat and worth going to the theathers.

[–] spope2 18 years ago

WOW, OK, I'm 32 from England, UK....and I always remember the first time i saw 'Castle Keep'....Astrid BLEW me away...absolutley stunning....some lucky man must have swept her off her feet....though she did appear with Patrick O'Neal at least twice in the movies!..maybe HE......!

[–] jcherrie 18 years ago

She is German and born in germany (despite the Dutch name) - she was an early super model http://groups.msn.com/MiniMadMod60s/diaryofamodmodel.msnw -- twice engaged to Peter Beard but never married. She was only friends with Patrick She is still incredibly beautiful,she looks 20 years younger than she is and young men constantly ask her out. And she would kill me if she knew I posted this - she is very private.

[–] Lewis11-1 18 years ago

Re this lady's astonishing beauty, I enthusiastically agree with all the comments. In Castle Keep, Astrid H was an absolute stunner.

Remember her tenderly naive encounter with Capt Beckman as she leaves the chapel after her prayers?

"Jealousy, Captain Beckman?" "In the Chapel?"

Somehow Beckman's reaction to AH reminded me of Hamlet's reaction to spotting Ophelia, just after his soliloquy;

"To be or not to be, etc. . . ."

Then, Hamlet sees her,

"...the fair Ophelia", "Nymph in thy orisons be all my sins remembered."

I know, making the connection is a bit of a stretch. Or is it? After all Hamlet deals with a ghost, the apparation of his dead father, who makes multiple appearances. Major Falconer's little band are all ghosts, everyone killed at least twice, some three times. So we are told, anyway, in the opening scene.

In my view Castle Keep is a never-ending war story. In it, the participants are doomed forever to refight the battle of the Ardennes, at the same Castle, in the same rose-garden, firing the same mounted 50-caliber machine gun, from the same postion atop the Keep. Does such a purgatory-like, repetitive structure remind anyone of Vietnam? of Irag?

woxofog

[–] elcoat 11 years ago

But did she have any children? Beautiful and intelligent women should be *reproduced*, after all. (Glad to see Monica Belucci has had 2 daughters, by the way.)

[–] AirborneRanger 18 years ago

This is a really good story; plus, yes, I fell in love with her immediately as well. Having traveled extensively through Europe, the cinematography made me 'homesick.' If there was every an antiwar film, this is it. Tragic, funny, moving.

[–] spope2 16 years ago

No posts on Astrid in 2 years. Surely she has not been forgotten. A wonderful presence in a cult movie that needs repeated viewings to fully appreciate it.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] eagle79-1 12 years ago

Just caught her on The Thomas Crown Affair, which was a pleasant surprise. She's on one of my favorite obscure horror films (Silent Night Bloody Night). It was really cool to see her acting next to Steve McQueen.

;)