Karl Gerhart Fröbe is born in Planitz on the 25th of February, 1913. After finishing school, Fröbe, a talented painter who wants to become an actor, completes a three-year apprenticeship as painter employed at the Staatstheater in Dresden. After taking acting lessons from Erich Ponto, who he follows to Berlin in 1936, he continues to take acting lessons there from Paul Günther, finally completing his acting studies under Lothar Müthel in the same year. Following engagements at the Städtischen Bühnen in both Wuppertal (1937/38) and Frankfurt (1938/39), he travels to Vienna, where he performs at the Volkstheater during the next four years. It is here he first comes in contact with film, playing the role of a farmer in the film "Die Kreuzlschreiber" in 1944. In the film "Berliner Ballade" (The Ballad of Berlin), the thin Fröbe takes on his first main role, playing a loyal helpless veteran returning home from the war. Fröbe eventually becomes known as "the normal Joe on the street", who dreams of love and mountains of cakes.

With few film offers, Fröbe – as a member of the Artists Lodge – works predominately in parody and as a jongleur for circus and variety audiences. Playing a number of big supporting roles in French films, Fröbe finally achieves a high degree of popularity as well as work in German cinema. Besides playing brutal villains, he also appears as inspector in three various "Dr. Mabuse" films. He achieves international fame with his role as "Goldfinger", the constantly sweating inhuman monster in the third James Bond film.

From 1971 onwards, Fröbe works increasingly in the German Federal Republic, performing in the film "$" by Richard Brooks in Hamburg as well as in the film "Das Schlangenei" (The Serpent’s Egg) by Ingmar Bergman in Munich. While making his comeback in German productions with the children’s film "Der Räuber Hotzenplotz", Fröbe’s most important forum becomes once again variety entertainment. He continues to perform in a few selected films made possible by the production unit of the Polyphon Film and Television Company (Film- und Fernseh-GmbH) in Hamburg.

Gert Fröbe was married five times and has two sons. Taken ill during the mid-1980s with lung cancer, he dies of a heart attack in Munich on September 5th, 1988.