Eric Braeden Parents: Meet his Father Wilhelm Gudegast

Eric Braeden is a German-born film and television actor. Eric Braeden is the son of Wilhelm Gudegast.

Eric Braeden was born in Bredenbek, Germany a small village in northern Germany where his father once served as mayor.

Following WWII, his father, a Nazi party member, was imprisoned by the British for a year  When his father died in 1953, his mother was forced to work in a factory to support her four sons.

Eric Braeden, then known by his birth name Hans Gudegast, moved to the United States at the age of 19 and lived with a cousin in Houston, where he found work dissecting cadavers for medical research.

Following a brief stint at Montana State University on a track and field scholarship, he relocated to Los Angeles to attend Santa Monica City College. He decided to become an actor after landing a bit part in “Operation Eichmann” (1961).

Eric Braeden revealed that he was a survivor of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff sinking in his autobiography, I’ll Be Damned, published by Harper Collins in 2017. It is estimated that approximately 9,400 people died. It was the most people killed in a single ship sinking in history.