Max von Sydow

Carl Adolf Max von Sydow (/vn sido/;[1]

Swedish: [fn sydv]; born 10 April 1929) is a SwedishFrench actor.[2] He has starred in many lms and had
supporting roles in dozens more in many languages, including Swedish, Norwegian, English, Italian, German,
Danish, French and Spanish. Von Sydow received the
Royal Foundation of Swedens Cultural Award in 1954,
was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2005,
and was named a Chevalier de la Lgion d'honneur on 17
October 2012.

studying 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 debuts in Alf Sjberg's lms Only a Mother
(Bara en mor, 1949) and Miss Julie (Frken Julie, 1951),
a screen version of Strindberg's scathing drama.

2 Career

Some of his most memorable lm roles include Knight

Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal
(1957), the rst of his eleven lms with Bergman, and the
lm that includes the iconic scenes in which he plays chess
with Death;[3] Martin in Through a Glass Darkly (1961);
Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Oktober
in The Quiller Memorandum (1966); Karl Oskar Nilsson in The Emigrants (1971); Roy Lindberg in Eblekrigen (The Applewar) (1971); Father Lankester Merrin in
The Exorcist (1973); Joubert the assassin in Three Days
of the Condor (1975); Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James
Bond lm Never Say Never Again (1983); Liet-Kynes
in Dune (1984); Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters
(1986); Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), for which
he received his rst Academy Award nomination; Dr.
Peter Ingham in Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in
Minority Report (2002) and The Renter in Extremely Loud
and Incredibly Close (2012), which earned him his second
Academy Award nomination.

In 1955, he moved to Malm, where he met his mentor,

Ingmar Bergman. His rst work with Bergman occurred
on stage at the Malm Municipal Theatre. Von Sydow
later would work with Bergman on lms such as The
Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, 1957), Wild Strawberries (Smultronstllet, 1957) and The Virgin Spring
(Jungfrukllan, 1960). In The Seventh Seal, von Sydow is
the knight who plays a chess game with Death. The chess
scenes and the lm were international breakthroughs for
actor and director alike. It was in these lms where von
Sydow honed and perfected his craft.

Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow, to a

wealthy family, in Lund, Skne. His father, Carl Wilhelm
von Sydow (1879-1952), was an ethnologist and professor of Irish, Scandinavian and comparative folklore at the
University of Lund.[4] The von Sydow familys origin is in
Pomerania, a region in Germany (and recently in Poland).
Thus comes the German-Prussian family name (von
means of and often indicates an aristocratic descent).
His mother, Baroness Maria Margareta Greta Rappe
(1892-1984), was a schoolteacher.[5][6][7] Von Sydow was
brought up as a Lutheran and later became an agnostic.[8]

Von Sydow came to dominate the screen as he did the

stage, becoming an idol of the international arthouse lm
scene. Critical recognition came as early as 1954 when
he was awarded the Royal Foundation Culture Award.
He worked profusely on both stage and screen while
in Scandinavia, resisting the increasing calls from the
United States to go to Hollywood. After being seen in
Bergmans Academy Awardwinning lms and having
been rst choice for the title role of Dr. No, von Sydow
nally went to America after agreeing to star in the lm
which led to much greater recognition, in the role of Jesus
in George Stevens' all-star epic The Greatest Story Ever
Told (1965). As his talents were soon in demand in other
American productions, von Sydow and his family relocated for some time to Los Angeles. From 1965, he became a regular on the American screen while maintaining
a presence in his native Sweden. In 1969, he appeared
in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter, and in 1971 gave
a powerful, quiet performance in Jan Troells acclaimed
The Emigrants alongside actress Liv Ullmann. Though
often typecast as a villain, he was rewarded in the United
States with two Golden Globe nominations, for Hawaii in
1966 and The Exorcist in 1973.

He attended Lund Cathedral School, where he learned

German and English starting at the age of nine. At
school he and some friends founded an amateur theatrical company. He completed his national service before

In the mid-1970s, von Sydow moved to Rome and appeared in a number of Italian lms, becoming friendly
with another screen legend, Marcello Mastroianni. In the
U.S., he played a memorably professional Alsatian assas-

Early life

Two hundred years to the day since King Gustav III, who founded
Dramaten, was assassinated, von Sydow attended a meeting
there on 16 March 1992 commemorating the date.

sin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), a role which won

him the KCFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor.

CAREER

Von Sydow at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

one of his largest commercial successes, co-starring with

Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's science ction thriller
Minority Report. In 2003, he played mentor character
Eyvind in the European TV adaptation of the Ring of the
Nibelung saga. The show set ratings records and was released in the US as Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King. In
2007, von Sydow starred in the box-oce hit Rush Hour
3. He followed that with Julian Schnabel's foreign lm
The Diving Bell and the Buttery, based on the memoir
by Jean-Dominique Bauby.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he appeared in Flash

Gordon (1980), Strange Brew (1983), David Lynch's
Dune (1984), and Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). In 1985, he was a member of the jury at the
35th Berlin International Film Festival.[9] He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the Danish lm Pelle the Conqueror (1987),
which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Lan- Recently, von Sydow appeared in Showtime's drama series The Tudors, where he portrayed Cardinal Otto Truchguage Film.
sess von Waldburg, a German-born clergyman who tries
Von Sydow has since won the Australian Film Institute's to organize the defeat of King Henry VIII. He also
Best Actor Award for his title role in Father (1989), the appeared in Martin Scorsese's 2010 lm adaptation of
Guldbagge Best Director Award for his only directorial Shutter Island and Ridley Scott's 2010 adaption of Robin
foray, Katinka (Ved vejen, 1988), based on a novel by Hood, playing Robins blind stepfather, Sir Walter LoxHerman Bang, and the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo ley.
International Film Festival for The Silent Touch (Dotknicie rki, 1993). He received international acclaim for his Von Sydow voices the character of Esbern in The Elperformance as Nobel Prizewinning novelist Knut Ham- der Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released on 11 NovemHe narrated the initial teaser trailer for the
sun in Jan Troell's biopic Hamsun. He received his third ber 2011.
[10][11]
game.
Swedish Guldbagge and his second Danish Bodil for his
depiction of a character often described as his King Lear. In April 2013, von Sydow was honored at the Turner
In 1996, he starred in Liv Ullmanns Private Confessions Classic Movie (TCM) Festival in Hollywood, with
(Enskilda samtal). Back in Hollywood, he appeared in screenings of two of his classic lms, Three Days of the
What Dreams May Come.
Condor and The Seventh Seal.[12]
He was acclaimed for his role as an elderly lawyer in Scott In March 2014, von Sydow guest starred in the animated
Hicks' Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2002, von Sydow had sitcom The Simpsons.

3
On April 29, 2014, it was announced that von Sydow had [12] 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival Adds Legendary Stars
and Filmmakers, Fascinating Presentations and More
been cast in Star Wars Episode VII (Star Wars: The Force
(PDF). Turner Classic Movies. 19 February 2013. ReAwakens).[13]
In 2016 he will join the HBO series Game of Thrones in
Season 6 as the Three-eyed Raven.[14]

Personal life

trieved 22 February 2013.

[13] http://starwars.com/news/
star-wars-episode-7-cast-announced.html
[14] Legendary actor Max von Sydow joins Game of Thrones
season 6!". Watchers On The Wall. 3 August 2015.
[15] http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article14127418.

On 1 August 1951, von Sydow married actress Christina

ab
Inga Britta Olin (born 1926 died 1998); the couple had
two sons, Clas and Henrik, who appeared with him in the [16] Pelle Erobreren (1987)". Swedish Film Institute. 15
March 2014.
lm Hawaii, playing his son at dierent ages. He and Olin
divorced on 26 February 1979.
[17] Ved Vejen (1988)". Swedish Film Institute. 15 March
2014.
Von Sydow married French lmmaker Catherine Brelet
on 30 April 1997 in Provence. He had to give up his [18] Award in Tokyo, www.filmpolski.pl (in Polish) Retrieved
Swedish citizenship to become a citizen of France in
16 January 2015
2002.[15]

Filmography

9. Sveriges befolkning 1970, Svensk Arkivinformation (SVAR), 2002 10. Sveriges ddbok 1901 - 2009,
Sveriges Slktforskarfrbund, 2011

References

6 External links

[1] FrenchSay How? A Pronunciation Guide to Names of

Public Figures
[2] Han bryter med Sverige. Aftonbladet. Retrieved 15
June 2013.
[3] Philip French, Screen Legends, The Observer, 10 February 2008
[4] Dundes, Alan (1999). International Folkloristics: Classic
Contributions by the Founders of Folklore. USA: Rowman
& Littleeld Publishers, Inc. p. 137. ISBN 0-8476-95158. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
[5] Max von Sydow Biography
[6] The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly - Google
Books. Books.google.ca. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
[7] http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Royal/Notes/sydow.txt
[8] Gordon Gow (1976). The Face of the Actor (Reprint)".
Films and Filming. Archived from the original on 17 July
2012. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
[9] Berlinale: Juries. berlinale.de. Retrieved 8 January
2011.
[10] 2010 VGAs: Elder Scrolls V trauker reveals 11-11-11
release date. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 12 October
2012.
[11] The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim cover. Game Informer
(United States: GameStop Corporation) (213): 5064.
February 2011.

Max von Sydow at the Internet Movie Database

Max von Sydow at the Swedish Film Database
Max von Sydow at the Internet Broadway Database
Max von Sydow at the TCM Movie Database

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Max von Sydow Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_von_Sydow?oldid=674702812 Contributors: Koyaanis Qatsi, Ed Poor, Deb,
OlofE~enwiki, Liftarn, Mic, Paul A, Urbanus~enwiki, Docu, Notheruser, Den fjttrade ankan~enwiki, , Sir Paul, Ehn, Lfh,
Wik, Peregrine981, Tempshill, Family Olofsson, Dimadick, Rfc1394, JackofOz, Aomarks, DocWatson42, Paul Richter, Rossrs, Elf,
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7.2

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artist: ?
File:Max_von_Sydow_1992.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Max_von_Sydow_1992.jpg License:
Public domain Contributors: This image comes from the Southerly Clubs of Stockholm, Sweden, a non-prot society which owns image
publication rights to the archives of Lars Jacob Prod, Mimical Productions, F.U.S.I.A., CabarEng, Ristesson Ent and FamSAC. Southerly
Clubs donated this picture to the Public Domain. Deputy Chairman Emil Eikner for the Board of Directors, Hallowe'en 2008. Original
artist: LJP assistant
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7.3

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