Actors - Max von Sydow

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Max von Sydow

	Actors - Max von Sydow

, born April 10 1929 in Lund, Malmöhus län (now a part of Skåne län), is a Swedish actor, known in particular for his collaboraton with Ingmar Bergman.

Early life

Max von Sydow was born to a noble family in Lund in southern Sweden. His father, Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, was a professor of comparative folklore at the University of Lund. His mother, friherrinnan (baroness) Greta Rappe, was a school teacher. He is known to have had at least one brother who allegedly died during the filming of "The Exorcist." Little material is available on his childhood, except that he seems to have been a shy, quiet child.

He attended the Cathedral School of Lund, and learned German and English starting at the age of nine. At school, he and some friends founded an amateur theatre company, where his acting career began. He completed National Service before going on to study at The Royal Dramatic Theatre ("Dramaten") in Stockholm, where he trained between 1948 and 1951 with the likes of Lars Ekborg, Margaretha Krook and Ingrid Thulin. During his time at Dramaten, he made his screen debut in Alf Sjöberg's films Only a Mother (Bara en Mor, 1949), and Miss Julie (Fröken Julie, 1951), a Swedish classic after August Strindberg.

Career

Von Sydow moved to Malmö in 1955. It was there that he met his mentor Ingmar Bergman. His first work with Bergman was on stage at Malmö Municipal Theatre. Von Sydow later would work with Bergman on films such as The Seventh Seal
(Det Sjunde inseglet, 1957), Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället, 1957) and The Virgin Spring
(Jungfrukällan, 1960).

It was in these films that von Sydow perfected his craft and began to display the great talent that has spanned the 53 years of his screen career. Von Sydow now dominated the screen as he had done on stage and in doing so became an idol of the international Arthouse. Recognition came as early as 1954 when he was awarded the prestigious Royal Foundation Culture Award.

Von Sydow worked profusely on stage and screen in Scandinavia and resisted increasing calls from the United States to come to Hollywood. After being seen in Bergman's Academy Award-winning films and having been first choice for the title role of Dr. No, Von Sydow finally set foot in America after agreeing to star in the film which was to lead to much greater recognition, the role of Jesus in George Stevens' grandly titled, all-star epic The Greatest Story Ever Told
in 1965. His talents were soon in demand in other American productions and so von Sydow and his family eventually moved to Los Angeles.

From 1965 von Sydow became a regular on the American screen while also maintaining a presence in his native Sweden. Though perhaps type-cast as a villain, he was rewarded in the United States with two Golden Globe nominations for Hawaii
and The Exorcist
in 1973.

In the mid 1970s, von Sydow moved to Rome and appeared in a number of Italian films, becoming friendly with another screen legend, Marcello Mastroianni.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, von Sydow appeared in both serious films, such as Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters
(1986), and silly ones like the Mackenzie Brothers' Strange Brew
(1983).

Since then Von Sydow has won The Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award for his title role in Father (1989), the Guldbagge Best Director Award for his only directorial foray Katinka (Ved vejen, 1988), based on a novel by Herman Bang, and the Best Actor Award at The Tokyo International Film Festival for The Silent Touch (Dotkniecie reki, 1993).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Max von Sydow ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Max von Sydow; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay