Sorry to be reviving this so late in the piece - but hope you can offer some advice.
My E53 has a non-opening front passenger door [it is a right-hand drive vehicle] as well as having the window jammed in the fully down position. The car has been sitting for some time with plastic sheeting over the window opening but this has allowed water to get onto the lock actuator.

I have removed the inner door panel and looking at the door actuator it appears the the linkage from the exterior handle is rusted in a semi-cocked position. There is some play in the cable to the door handle carrier but the actuating linkage is solidly rusted and immovable.
While I would prefer to not destroy the actuator this might be my only option if it enables me to get the door open [and I need to do that to fix the window problem as I cannot even pull the glass up by hand].
I have looked at the videos and images but cannot figure out how to remove the linkage from the DHC from the actuator in order to free up the internals.
Any advice would be appreciated.