Brandauer was born as Klaus Georg Steng in Bad Aussee, Austria (then part of the German Reich).

His first wife was Karin Katharina Müller (14 October 1945 – 13 November 1992), an Austrian film and television director and screenwriter, from 1963 until her death in 1992, aged 47, from cancer.

His starring and award-winning role in István Szabó's Mephisto (1981) playing a self-absorbed actor, launched his international career.

Instead, he brings a certain poignancy and charm to Largo, and since Connery always has been a particularly human James Bond, the emotional stakes are more convincing this time.

His other film roles have been in The Lightship (1986), Streets of Gold (1986), Burning Secret (1988), White Fang (1991), Becoming Colette (1991), Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999, as director Otto Preminger), and Everyman's Feast (2002).

Brandauer had resisted questions about how his production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's classic musical comedy about the criminal MacHeath would differ from earlier versions, and his production featured Mack the Knife in a three-piece suit and white gloves, stuck to Brecht's text, and avoided any references to contemporary politics or issues.