Brother of Dieter Prochnow, father of Roman Prochnow and Mona Prochnow.
His first wife in the 1970s gave birth to a daughter named Johanna who died young.
One of his earlier memorable roles was in the ground-breaking 1977 TV
film The Consequence (1977), a love story between two homosexuals. The
Bayerischer Rundfunk (public TV and radio) station in Bavaria refused
to broadcast the film at the time, but audiences who managed to see it
were quite touched by what they saw.
Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival in 1996.