He took part in 45 films and became well known in Austria and Germany for his role as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the Sissi film trilogy and internationally for his role as Mark, the psychopathic protagonist of Peeping Tom, directed by Michael Powell.

Faked papers (claiming he had a lung disease)[3] enabled him to emigrate to Switzerland in 1939, just around the beginning of World War II,[4] where he attended the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz, a boarding school.

The role for a time limited him to one specific genre as an actor, but Böhm's best known English language film was a dramatic change of image.

Director Michael Powell cast him in the role because he felt Böhm might understand the character's experience of having an overbearing father.

The latter film was made especially for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color television anthology series, but it was released theatrically in Europe.

During 1974 and 1975, Böhm appeared prominently in four consecutive films from prolific New German Cinema director Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Martha, Effi Briest, Faustrecht der Freiheit (Fox and His Friends), and Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (Mother Küsters' Trip to Heaven).

He bet that "not every third viewer would donate one Mark, one Swiss franc or seven Austrian schillings for needy people in the Sahel zone".

In February 2013 it was reported that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease,[13] he lived in Grödig near Salzburg until his death in May 2014.