Born in Vienna, Werner spent much of his childhood in the care of his grandmother, who entertained him with stories about the Burgtheater, the Austrian state theatre, where he was accepted at the age of 18 by Lothar Müthel.

As a pacifist and staunch opponent of National Socialism, he was determined to avoid advancement in the army: So many officers had been killed on the Russian front that they needed replacements desperately.

That December, he deserted the Wehrmacht and fled with his wife and daughter to the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods), where they remained in hiding until the end of the war.

[citation needed] When the subsequent roles promised by the studio failed to materialize, he returned to Europe[4] and settled in Triesen, Liechtenstein in a home he designed and built with a friend.

After a period of inactivity in films, Werner appeared in five in 1955, including Mozart, in which he played the title role, and Lola Montès, directed by Max Ophüls.

[6] His portrayal of Fiedler in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture[5] and his second BAFTA nomination.

[7] In 1966, he played a book-burning fireman Guy Montag who rebels against a controlled society in François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

[4] He played an orchestra conductor in Interlude[8] and a Vatican priest loosely based on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Shoes of the Fisherman in 1968.

In the early 1970s, Werner returned to the stage and spent time traveling in Israel, Italy, Malta, France, and the United States.

[10] Werner was also set to appear in Michael Cimino's love triangle drama Perfect Strangers alongside Roy Scheider and Romy Schneider.