Editing Lex Barker (section)

===West Germany===
Barker had his greatest success in West Germany. There, he starred in movies based on the "[[Doctor Mabuse]]" stories (formerly filmed by [[Fritz Lang]]), in the movies ''[[The Return of Doctor Mabuse]]'' (1961).{{sfn|Kalat|2005|p=298}} He was in ''[[Doctor Sibelius]]'' (1962).

Barker then played [[Old Shatterhand]] in an adaptation of the novel by popular German author [[Karl May]] (1842–1912), ''[[Treasure of the Silver Lake]]'' (1962).<ref>{{cite book |last=Goral |first=Pawel |date=2014 |title=Cold War Rivalry and the Perception of the American West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRA6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |location=New York |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=122 |isbn=978-1-137-36429-6}}</ref> It was a huge hit, and 11 movies adapting stories by Karl May followed until 1968.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lentz III |first=Harris M. |date=2016 |title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLcfDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA40 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company |page=40 |isbn=978-0-7864-7667-1}}</ref>{{Circular reference|date=May 2025}} Barker did the comedy ''[[Breakfast in Bed (film)|Breakfast in Bed]]'' (1962), then the adventure movie ''[[Storm Over Ceylon]]'' (1963). He returned to Italy for ''[[The Executioner of Venice]]'' (1963){{sfn|Hughes|2011|p=42}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Prickette |first=James |date=2012 |title=Actors of the Spaghetti Westerns |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Q1SAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA310 |page=310 |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=978-1-4691-4428-3}}</ref> and ''[[Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance]]'' (1963).{{sfn|Rowan|2013|p=40}}

Barker reprised his role as Old Shatterhand in ''[[Apache Gold]]'' (1964), ''[[Old Shatterhand (film)|Old Shatterhand]]'' (1964), and ''[[Last of the Renegades]]'' (1965).{{sfn|Rowan|2013|p=40}}{{sfn|Monush|2003|p=43}} He went to South Africa for [[Harry Alan Towers]]' West German-British [[international co-production]] ''[[Victim Five]]'' (1964),{{sfn|Monush|2003|p=43}}{{sfn|Bergfelder|2005|p=219}} then returned to West Germany for other adaptations of May books: ''[[The Treasure of the Aztecs]]'' (1965) and ''[[The Pyramid of the Sun God]]'' (1965) .{{sfn|Bergfelder|2005|p=252}} ''[[24 Hours to Kill]]'' (1965) was a British movie.{{sfn|Bergfelder|2005|p=219}} ''[[The Hell of Manitoba]]'' (1965) and ''[[The Desperado Trail]]'' (1966) were Westerns.{{sfn|Rowan|2013|p=447}}

Though Barker did speak German, he was almost always dubbed in his West German films. His go-to dubber was [[Gert Günther Hoffmann]], whose distinctive voice contributed to Barker's success.

In 1966, Barker was awarded the "[[Bambi (prize)|Bambi Award]]" as Best Foreign Actor in West Germany, where he was a very popular star.<ref>{{cite book |last=Petzel |first=Michael |date=1998 |title=Karl-May-Filmbuch: Stories und Bilder aus der deutschen Traumfabrik |trans-title=Karl May film book: Stories and Pictures from the German dream factory |language=German |location=Radebeul, Germany |publisher=Karl-May-Verlag |page=33 |isbn=978-3780201539}}</ref> He even recorded two songs in German: "Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir" ("I'll be on the way to you tomorrow", composed by [[Martin Böttcher]], the composer of some of the soundtracks of the Karl May movies) and "Mädchen in Samt und Seide" ("Girl in Silk and Velvet", composed by Werner Scharfenberger).<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Music Capitals of the World |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WikEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA24 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |location=New York |date=November 13, 1965}}</ref>

His later films included ''[[Killer's Carnival]]'' (1966), and ''[[Winnetou and the Crossbreed]]'' (1967). In the same year, he starred in a [[Eurospy]] film ''[[Spy Today, Die Tomorrow]]'' and a horror film ''[[The Blood Demon]]'', and appeared in the anthology film ''[[Woman Times Seven]]'' (1967).{{sfn|Monush|2003|p=43}}

He returned to the United States occasionally and made a handful of guest appearances on American television episodes, but Europe, and especially West Germany, was his professional home for the remainder of his life.