Distinctive German star character actor, specialising in quaint or dyed-in-the-wool eccentrics, grumpy civil servants, pedantic school principals, doctors, head waiters and stuffy accountants. He studied under Louise Dumont and Gustav Lindemann and cut his acting teeth at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. Henckels was co-founder, and, from 1921, co-director of the Berlin Schlossparktheater. He was also a member of the ensemble of the Berlin Staatstheater from 1936 to 1945. He was discovered for the screen by silent star Henny Porten. After his debut appearance in this medium in 1921 he was rarely absent from films for the next four decades. His most fondly remembered role was that of the droll academic, Professor Bömmel, in the second filming of Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944).