Max von Sydow

Max von Sydow (/vɒn ˈsiːdoʊ/ von SEE-doh,[1] Swedish: [fɔn ˈsy̌ːdɔv] (listen); born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French[lower-alpha 1] actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television series in multiple languages.[3][4] He became a French citizen in 2002 and lived in France for the last two decades of his life.

Max von Sydow
Von Sydow at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
Born
Carl Adolf von Sydow

(1929-04-10)10 April 1929
Lund, Sweden
Died8 March 2020(2020-03-08) (aged 90)
Seillans, Var, France
CitizenshipSwedish (1929–2002)
French (2002–2020)
Alma materRoyal Dramatic Theatre
OccupationActor
Years active1949–2020
Spouse(s)
Christina Olin
​
​
(m. 1951; div. 1979)​

Catherine Brelet
​
​
(m. 1997)​
Children4
ParentCarl Wilhelm von Sydow (father)

Capable in roles ranging from stolid, contemplative protagonists to sardonic artists and menacing, often gleeful villains, von Sydow was first noticed internationally for playing the 14th-century knight Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957), which features iconic scenes of his character challenging Death to a game of chess. He appeared in a total of eleven films directed by Bergman, among which were The Virgin Spring (1960) and Through a Glass Darkly (1961), both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He starred in a third winner, Bille August's Pelle the Conqueror (1987), a quarter-century later.

Von Sydow made his American film debut as Jesus Christ in George Stevens' Biblical epic film The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and went on to star in films such as William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor (1975), the science fiction film Flash Gordon (1980), the James Bond adaptation Never Say Never Again (1983), David Lynch's Dune (1984), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002), Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010), and J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). He also had a supporting role in HBO's Game of Thrones as the Three-eyed Raven, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.[5]

During his career, von Sydow received two Academy Award nominations for his performances in Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011). He received the Royal Foundation of Sweden's Cultural Award in 1954, was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, and was named a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 17 October 2012.[6]

Early life

Carl Adolf von Sydow was born on 10 April 1929 in Lund, Sweden.[7] His father, Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, was an ethnologist and professor of folkloristics at Lund University.[8][9] His mother, Baroness Maria Margareta Rappe, was a schoolteacher.[7][8][10][2] Von Sydow was of part-German ancestry. A paternal ancestor, David Sydow ("von" or "Von" was added later to the family surname), emigrated from Pomerania to the Kalmar region in 1724. His mother was also of part-Pomeranian descent.[11][12] Von Sydow was raised as a Lutheran, but became an agnostic in the 1970s.[13]

Von Sydow attended Lund Cathedral School, where he learned English at an early age.[7] Originally expected to pursue a career in law, he became interested in acting after seeing a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream during a class trip to Malmö,[14][15] which prompted him to establish an amateur theatrical group along with his friends back at school.[7][2]

Von Sydow served for two years in the Swedish Army with the Army Quartermaster Corps, where he adopted the name "Max" from the star performer of a flea circus he saw.[7][16] After completing his service, von Sydow studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm where he trained between 1948 and 1951.[7] During his time at the Dramaten, he helped start a theatre group, of which actress Ingrid Thulin was a member.[16] He made his stage debut in a small part in the Goethe play Egmont, which he considered "almost a disaster," but received good reviews for his performance.[2]

Career

Early career
von Sydow in 1961

While at the Dramaten, von Sydow made his screen debuts in Alf Sjöberg's films Only a Mother (Bara en mor, 1949) and Miss Julie (Fröken Julie, 1951).[16] In 1951, von Sydow joined the Norrköping-Linköping Municipal Theatre, appearing in nine plays including Peer Gynt. In 1953, he moved on to the City Theatre in Hälsingborg, playing eleven parts in a two-year stint, including Prospero in The Tempest and the titular role of the Pirandello play Henry IV.[17] Von Sydow's theatrical work won him critical recognition, and in 1954 he received the Royal Foundation of Sweden's Cultural Award, a grant to young, promising actors.[16]

1955–1960s

In 1955, von Sydow moved to Malmö and joined the Malmö City Theatre, whose chief director at the time was Ingmar Bergman.[17] Von Sydow had previously sought to play a small part in Bergman's Prison (Fängelse, 1949), but the director rejected the proposition.[18] Bergman and von Sydow's first film was The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet, 1957), in which von Sydow portrayed Antonius Block, a disillusioned 14th-century knight returning from the Crusades to a plague-stricken Sweden.[19] The scene of his character playing a game of chess with Death has come to be regarded as an iconic moment in cinema.[18] Von Sydow went on to appear in a total of 11 Bergman films.[20] In The Magician (Ansiktet, 1958), von Sydow starred as Vogler, a 19th-century traveling illusionist who remains silent for most of the film.[19][14] In The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan, 1960), he played a medieval landowner who plots vengeance on the men who raped and murdered his daughter.[3] In Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel, 1961), he portrayed the husband of a schizophrenic woman, played by Harriet Andersson.[19] During this period, he also had roles in films including Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället, 1957), Brink of Life (Nära livet, 1958) and Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna, 1963).[7][20] Films starring von Sydow were submitted by Sweden for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in five out of six years between 1957 and 1962. Under Bergman, von Sydow also continued his stage career, playing Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Peer in Peer Gynt, Alceste in The Misanthrope and Faust in Urfaust. In his company were Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson and Gunnel Lindblom, all frequent collaborators of Bergman on screen.[19]

von Sydow (left) with Povel Ramel and Beppe Wolgers, 1968

Despite his rising profile, von Sydow limited his work exclusively to Sweden early in his career, constantly refusing offers to work outside the country.[19] He was first approached at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival to act in U.S. films, but refused the proposition, saying that he was "content in Sweden" and "had no intention of starting an international career".[21] He also refused the opportunity to play the titular role for Dr. No (1962) and Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965).[22] In 1965, von Sydow finally accepted George Stevens's offer and made his international debut, playing Christ in the epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.[19] He accepted the part against the advice of Bergman, spent six months at the University of California, Los Angeles, preparing for the role, and adopted a Mid-Atlantic accent.[22] The film introduced von Sydow to a wider audience, but ultimately performed below expectations at the box office.[7] He went on to play a crop-dusting pilot in The Reward (1965) and a fanatic missionary in Hawaii (1966).[19] For his performance in Hawaii, von Sydow received his first Golden Globe nomination.[2] To his own frustration, however, von Sydow would become frequently cast in villainous roles, such as a neo-Nazi aristocrat in The Quiller Memorandum (1966), a Russian colonel in The Kremlin Letter (1970), a meticulous and elegant international assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), Emperor Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon (1980) and James Bond's nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Never Say Never Again (1983).[7][19]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, von Sydow was often paired with Liv Ullmann in Bergman films. In 1968's Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen), von Sydow played an artist living on an isolated island with his pregnant wife, played by Ullmann.[23] In the same year, the two appeared in the drama Shame (Skammen), about a couple (both former musicians) living on a farm on an island during a war.[3] Von Sydow and Ullmann returned for the 1969 Bergman film The Passion of Anna (En passion).[23] In 1971 and 1972, von Sydow again starred alongside Ullmann in the Jan Troell epic duology, The Emigrants (Utvandrarna) The New Land (Nybyggarna), the story of a Swedish peasant family that emigrates to America in the mid-19th century.[3]

1970s–1980s

In 1971, von Sydow starred in The Touch, Bergman's first English-language film, playing a doctor whose wife is having an affair.[19] In 1973, von Sydow appeared in one of his most commercially successful films, William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).[7] He played Father Lankester Merrin, the film's titular Jesuit priest, which earned him his second Golden Globe nomination.[2] He reprised the role in the film's sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).[17] In 1977, von Sydow made his Broadway debut alongside Eileen Atkins and Bibi Andersson in Per Olov Enquist's The Night of the Tribades, a play about the writer August Strindberg. In 1981, he starred with Anne Bancroft in the Tom Kempinski play Duet for One about the cellist Jacqueline du Pré.[7] Von Sydow made his British stage debut at The Old Vic in 1988 as Prospero in The Tempest, a role he first played in Sweden three decades ago.[15][24]

In the 1980s, in addition to Flash Gordon and Never Say Never Again, von Sydow appeared in John Milius's Conan the Barbarian (1982), Jan Troell's Flight of the Eagle (1982), Rick Moranis's & Dave Thomas's Strange Brew (1983), David Lynch's Dune (1984) and Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).[2][7][19] In 1985, von Sydow was a member of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.[25] In the 1987 Bille August film Pelle the Conqueror, von Sydow portrayed an impoverished Swedish labourer who brought his son to Denmark to try to build a better life for themselves.[7] The role won him international acclaim and is often considered one of the best roles in his career. For his performance, von Sydow received a Best Actor nomination at the 61st Academy Awards; the film won Best Foreign Language Film as Denmark's official Oscar entry.[2] In 1988, von Sydow made his only directorial foray with Katinka, a film based on the Herman Bang novel, Ved Vejen.[17] The film won the Guldbagge Awards for Best Film and Best Director, but was not widely seen outside Sweden.[26] In 1989, von Sydow appeared in the television film Red King, White Knight, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also supplied the voice for Vigo the Carpathian in the 1989 film, Ghostbusters II.[2]

1990s–2000s
At the 1990 Cannes Film Festival

Von Sydow and Bergman did not work together for an extended period. A part in Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982) was specifically written for von Sydow, but his agent demanded too large a salary. Von Sydow came to regret missing out on the role.[26] The two did eventually reunite in 1991 with The Best Intentions, directed by Bille August with a script from Bergman.[19] In 1996, von Sydow made his final appearance in a Bergman film, Private Confessions, directed by Liv Ullmann and written by Bergman.[2] In 1997, von Sydow played Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian novelist and Nazi sympathizer Knut Hamsun in the biopic Hamsun.[7] Throughout the rest of the 1990s, von Sydow also appeared in films such as Father (1990), Awakenings (1990), Until the End of the World (1991), Needful Things (1993), Judge Dredd (1995) and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999).[17][16][18] For his performance in Father, von Sydow won the Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award.[27]

In 2002, von Sydow acted in one of his biggest commercial successes, playing the PreCrime director opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller Minority Report.[17][16] In 2004, von Sydow appeared in a television adaptation of the Ring of the Nibelung saga. The show set ratings records and was later released in the United States as Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King.[17] In 2007, he starred in the box-office hit Rush Hour 3 as one of the antagonists opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, and played the father of the protagonist in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel's adaptation of the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby. In 2009, von Sydow appeared in the drama series The Tudors.[17]

2010s
von Sydow in 2012

In 2010, von Sydow played a sinister German doctor in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island,[19] and Robin Hood's blind stepfather Sir Walter Loxley in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.[17] He received his second Academy Award nomination for his performance as a mute elderly renter in Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.[7][28]

In April 2013, von Sydow was honored at the Turner Classic Movie (TCM) Festival in Hollywood, with screenings of two of his classic films, Three Days of the Condor and The Seventh Seal.[29]

In March 2014, Von Sydow provided the voice of an art forger named in The War of Art episode of The Simpsons.[30][31]

In 2015, he played the explorer Lor San Tekka in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[16] In 2016, he joined the HBO series Game of Thrones as the Three-eyed Raven. For his performance, von Sydow received his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination.[16]

In addition to his film and television work, von Sydow also made forays into video games. He voiced Esbern, a mentor of the protagonist in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), and narrated the game's debut trailer.[32] He also lent his voice to the 2009 game Ghostbusters: The Video Game and reprised his role as Lor San Tekka in Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016).[33]

In 2018, von Sydow appeared in Thomas Vinterberg's film Kursk, also known as The Command, based on the true story of the Kursk submarine disaster.[34]

His final role was in Nicholas Dimitropoulos' war drama Echoes of the Past (2021). He portrayed Nicolas Andreou, one of the last living survivors of the Kalavryta massacre of 1943 committed by Nazi troops during the Axis occupation of Greece.[26]

Personal life

Von Sydow married actress Christina Inga Britta Olin in 1951. They had two sons, Clas and Henrik, who appeared with him in the film Hawaii. The couple divorced in 1979.[2] Von Sydow married French documentarian Catherine Brelet in 1997 and adopted Brelet's two adult sons, Cédric and Yvan, from her previous marriage.[2][19]

Von Sydow relocated to Paris following his marriage to Brelet. In 2002, he became a citizen of France, at which time he had to relinquish his Swedish citizenship.[2][35]

Von Sydow was reported to be either an agnostic[13] or an atheist.[36] In 2012, he told Charlie Rose in an interview that Ingmar Bergman had told him he would contact him after death to show him that there was a life after death. When Rose asked von Sydow if he had heard from Bergman, he replied that he had but chose not to elaborate further on the exact meaning of this statement. In the same interview, he described himself as a doubter in his youth but stated this doubt was gone and indicated he came to agree with Bergman's belief in the afterlife.[37]

Von Sydow died on 8 March 2020 at his home in Provence, France at age 90. He was survived by his wife and his four sons.[16]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

He has been nominated for two Academy Awards for his performances in Bille August's Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011). At the age of 82, von Sydow was one of the oldest nominees for an Academy Award. Sydow also received two Golden Globe Awards nominations as well as two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. In 1982 he received the Best Actor prize at the Venice International Film Festival for his performance in Flight of the Eagle. He is also the winner of 3 Guldbagge Awards and received a festival trophy from the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.

See also
  • List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
  • List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
  • List of Academy Award records – first Nordic actor to be nominated for acting, for Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
  • List of actors nominated for Academy Awards for non-English performances

Notes
  1. Von Sydow was born in Sweden and held Swedish citizenship until 2002, when he relinquished it to become a French citizen.[2]

References
  1. "NLS: Say How". loc.gov. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  2. Saad, Nardine (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, Swedish star of Bergman films, 'The Exorcist,' dies at 90". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  3. Rafferty, Terrence (December 2015). "The Greatest Actor Alive". The Atlantic. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  4. Hynes, Eric (28 November 2012). "Staring Down Death: The Singular Career of Max von Sydow". The Village Voice. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  5. "Max von Sydow". Emmys.com. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  6. TT Spektra (24 January 2011). "Max von Sydow dubbad till riddare" [Max von Sydow knighted]. Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  7. Berkvist, Robert (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, Star of 'Seventh Seal' and 'Exorcist', Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  8. The Swedish–American Historical Quarterly. Swedish Pioneer Historical Society. 1996. p. 110. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  9. Dundes, Alan (1999). International Folkloristics: Classic Contributions by the Founders of Folklore. USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 137. ISBN 0-8476-9515-8. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  10. "Max von Sydow". FilmReference.com.
  11. Johnsson, Daniel (2015). Vimmerby stads historia: 1350-1799 (in Swedish). BoD - Books on Demand. p. 129. ISBN 9789174635812.
  12. "Filmstar Max von Sydow mit 90 Jahren gestorben". Agence France-Presse (in German). 9 March 2020. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  13. Gow, Gordon (1976). "The Face of the Actor (Reprint)". Films and Filming. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
  14. Bernstein, Adam (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, brooding star of Ingmar Bergman's torment-ridden dramas, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  15. Hadadi, Roxana (10 March 2020). "Max von Sydow: 1929-2020". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  16. Byrge, Duane (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, Star of 'The Seventh Seal' and 'The Exorcist', Dies at 90". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  17. Obituaries, Telegraph (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, actor who played chess with Death in 'The Seventh Seal' – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  18. Parkinson, David (10 April 2017). "Max von Sydow: 10 essential films". British Film Institute. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  19. Bergan, Ronald (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  20. French, Philip (10 February 2008). "Philip French's screen legends: No 3: Max von Sydow 1929–". The Observer. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  21. Goldberg, Robert (10 April 1983). "Max von Sydow, Actor Without a Country". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  22. "Max von Sydow, star of The Exorcist and Game of Thrones, dies aged 90". The Daily Telegraph. 9 March 2020. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  23. Hudson, David (9 March 2020). "The Wide and Deep Range of Max von Sydow". Criterion. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  24. Wolf, Matt (28 May 1988). "Swedish Actor Von Sydow Turns to London Stage". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  25. "Berlinale: Juries". Berlin International Film Festival. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  26. Andrew, Nigel (9 March 2020). "Max von Sydow, actor, 1929-2020". Financial Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  27. "AFI Past Awards 1990". Australian Film Institute. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  28. Pond, Steve (28 December 2011). "Max von Sydow on Tragedy, Typecasting and 'Emotional Stupidity'". Reuters. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  29. King, Susan (25 April 2014). "Max von Sydow, from Jesus to the evil brewmeister". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  30. "The War of Art". IMDb.com. IMDb, Inc. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  31. Ng, David. "'The Simpsons': A lesson in art forgery, with Max von Sydow". latimes.com. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
  32. Yin-Poole, Wesley (22 October 2011). "'TESV: Skyrim voice cast revealed". Eurogamer. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  33. Ankers, Adele (9 March 2020). "Star Wars, Skyrim Actor Max Von Sydow Dies Aged 90". IGN. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  34. "Thomas Vinterberg's Kursk movie, now in production, will shoot all over Europe". ComingSoon.net. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  35. "Han bryter med Sverige". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  36. Tim Appelo (29 March 2014). "Exorcist Director: It Worked Because 'I Made That Film as a Believer'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  37. Max von Sydow on Ingmar Bergman on YouTube
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