In films since childhood in his native Germany, Kieling appeared in a few American films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966), where he played an East German agent brutally slain by Paul Newman's character, and had a small role in $ (aka, The Heist, 1971), starring Warren Beatty. In a British film, Amsterdam Affair (1968), he portrayed the fictional Dutch detective Van der Valk several years before Barry Foster (another Hitchcock alumnus) was cast in the same role for the British TV series. He did much work on German TV, including the first episode of Derrick ("Waldweg", 1974).