Michael Mendl (born as Michael Sandrock, 20 April 1944, Lünen) is a German actor. He is considered one of the most sought-after character actors of his generation. Mendl was born as the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest in Duisburg and the Leipzig medical student Martha Sandrock. He spent his childhood in the orphanage and Brambauer Straelen, before he moved in 1949 with his mother and stepfather Ernst Mendl, an associate at BASF in Ludwigshafen. He later adopted the surname of his stepfather.