Although he joined the enduring if highly troubled band following the extremely difficult but equally gifted German film master Rainer Werner Fassbinder fairly late in the game, Spengler made an indelible mark as actor in several key films. A tall and typically lumpy man with small, beady eyes and perennially tousled hair, Spengler first worked for Fassbinder in 1976. He made an immediate impression as part of a sinister mother-and-son team of caretakers hovering about the tight web of lovers peopling the artful "Chinese Roulette". That same year, Spengler also shone in a Renfield-like turn as