While less known in his home country, he was not only a strong supporter of alternative energy (since the Great Blackout of 2003) and later appearing in German solar energy commercials playing with his old role of JR, the solar energy commercials had been also filmed by the (locally) famous German director Sönke Wortmann.
Really an actor who had been able to have some fun despite getting typecasted. Also he was the guy who explained the German country band "Texas Lightning" (honorary citizens of Texas now) what their name actually means.
I think this all just shows one thing: He was damn famous in Germany - somebody who earned the respect of people despite playing a character that you would never want to be yourself. A villian, that is too big to fail. And a bit of that quality must have been stuck on the actor.
