The late actor had a very interesting history. The son of a black WWII soldier and a German mother, he was discovered by German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and, despite being married, he began an affair with Fassbinder and went on to appear in many of the director’s films - one of them being the gay art house classic QUERELLE. During one scene in the movie, his character graphically fucks the title character, played by the late actor Brad Davis.
After Fassbinder died of a drug overdose in 1982, Kaufmann played bit roles in films. In 1986, he married for a third time to Alexandra von Herrendorf, to whom he remained married until her death from cancer in 2002. His wife's cancer was getting worse, and it was to pay for her treatment that the Kaufmanns defrauded their accountant, Hartmut Hagen, of almost $500,000. In 2001, Hagen was found dead, apparently suffocated, and Kaufmann was accused of murder. In 2002, the death was ruled accidental after Kaufmann, who weighed close to 260 pounds at the time of the incident, confessed that he had fallen on Hagen during a fight. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for blackmail and robbery in relation to the incident. In 2005, a police investigation revealed that Kaufmann had not committed the crimes, but had confessed in order to protect his dying wife. The investigation also revealed that Hagen was killed by three men likely hired by von Herrendorf, without his knowledge, who had broken into Hagen's home to retrieve incriminating evidence against von Herrendorf.
Kaufmann was released from prison in 2005. He then resumed his acting career, which had been waning around the time of Hagen's death, appearing in supporting roles in films and on television. Kaufmann died in 2012, aged 64, having suffered a heart attack while out for a walk in Berlin's Grunewald area.