The eldest daughter of the star of Nosferatu the Vampyre, late German film legend Klaus Kinski, has written an autobiography in which she claims her father repeatedly abused her throughout her childhood.

In an interview with the German magazine Stern, 60-year-old Pola Kinski revealed that her famous father assaulted her from the age of five until she was 19.

Pola said she kept quiet for years because "he forbade me from talking about it." 

"As a child, I always had to keep my mouth shut because he was threatening me," Pola explained. 

She said she wrote her autobiography Kindermund (Child's Mouth) to help others who have "lived through something of a kind."

Image from kinopoisk.ru

Klaus Kinski was born in Poland and served in the German army in World War II. Later he made his name as one of Germany's leading lights, having appeared in over 130 films, including some directed by Werner Herzog. The actor, who portrayed a villain in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western For A Few Dollars More, was notorious for having mental problems. He died of a heart attack in California, in 1991, aged 65.

According to Pola, she waited so long to come out with her accusations, because she is sick of the idolization of her father in the media.

"I can't hear it anymore: 'Your father! Great! A genius! I always liked him…’"

Pola's 51-year-old half-sister, Hollywood star Nastassja Kinski, has reportedly also said her father tried to abuse her when she was a child. "He was a tyrant," the actress noted.

The Berlin-born actress, who has long been living in America, told the Bild am Sonntag weekly that her father attempted to rape her a number of times, but didn't.

Image from kinopoisk.ru

"He always touched me far too much, held me so tightly against him that I thought I could not escape. At the time I was four or five years old and we were living in Munich," AFP has quoted her as saying.

Kinski reportedly said she "instinctively recognized" that it "could not be the loving embrace of a father but that it was more than that."If he were still alive today, "I would do everything to ensure he went to prison," she told Bild am Sonntag. "When he died, some people told me they were sorry. I wasn't sorry."

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