Eric Braeden is a German film and television actor, known for his roles as Victor Newman on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, as Hans Dietrich in the 1960s TV series The Rat Patrol, Dr. Charles Forbin in Colossus The Forbin Project, and as John Jacob Astor IV in the 1997 film Titanic. He won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the role of Victor Newman.
Braeden was born HansJrg Gudegast in Bredenbek, Germany , where his father was once mayor. He immigrated to the USA in 1959. In the United States, Braeden attended the University of Montana, Missoula on a Track and Field Scholarship .
Source: Wikipedia