Born
| Carl Adolf von Sydow
10 April 1929 (age 87)
Lund, Sweden |
|---|
| Occupation |
Actor |
| Years active |
1947–present |
| Spouse(s) |
- Kerstin Olin (1951–1979; two sons)
- Catherine Brelet (1997–present)
|
Max von Sydow (born Carl Adolf von Sydow
;
[1] Swedish:
[fɔn ˈsyːdɔv]; born 10 April 1929) is a Swedish actor who became a French citizen in 2002.
[2] He has appeared in many films, in many languages, including
Swedish,
Norwegian,
Danish,
German,
English,
French,
Italian and
Spanish. 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.
Sydow has appeared in well over a hundred films and TV shows.
[3] Some of his most memorable film roles include Knight Antonius Block in
Ingmar Bergman's
The Seventh Seal
(1957), the first of his eleven films with Bergman, and the film that
includes the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death;
[4] 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
The Apple War (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 film 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 first
Academy Award nomination; Dr Peter Ingham in
Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in
Minority Report (2002); Josiah Kane in
Solomon Kane (2009); Sir Walter Loxley in
Robin Hood (2010); and The Renter in
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2012), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination. In 2016, Sydow joined the cast of
HBO's hit series
Game of Thrones, playing the role of the
Three-eyed Raven for which he received a
Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Early life
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow in
Lund, to a wealthy family. His father, Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (21 December 1879 – 4 March 1952), was an
ethnologist and professor of
Irish,
Scandinavian, and comparative folklore at the
University of Lund.
[5] Some of his ancestry is German; his family’s origin is in
Pomerania, now a region mostly in Poland, formerly part of
Prussia, and
Sydow is a
Prussian family name. The particle
von
means "of" and usually indicates aristocratic descent. His mother,
Baroness Maria Margareta "Greta" Rappe (8 December 1892 – 25 July 1984),
was a schoolteacher.
[6][7][8] Sydow was brought up as a
Lutheran and later became an
agnostic.
[9]
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 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 Sjöberg's films
Only a Mother (
Bara en mor, 1949) and
Miss Julie (
Fröken Julie, 1951), a screen version of
Strindberg's scathing drama.
Career
In 1955, Sydow moved to
Malmö, where he met his
mentor,
Ingmar Bergman.
His first work with Bergman occurred on stage at the Malmö Municipal
Theatre, and he would go on to work with Bergman on films such as
The Seventh Seal (
Det sjunde inseglet, 1957),
Wild Strawberries (
Smultronstället, 1957) and
The Virgin Spring (
Jungfrukällan, 1960). In
The Seventh Seal, Sydow is the knight who plays a
chess
game with Death. The chess scenes and the film were international
breakthroughs for actor and director alike. It was in these films that
Sydow honed and perfected his craft.
Max von Sydow came to dominate the screen as he did the stage,
becoming an idol of the international arthouse film 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 Bergman's
Academy Award–winning films and having been first choice for the title role of
Dr. No,
von Sydow finally went to America after agreeing to star in the film
which led to much greater recognition, in the role of Jesus in
George Stevens's 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 Troell's 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.
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.
In the mid-1970s, Sydow moved to Rome and began to appear in a number of
Italian films, becoming friendly with another screen legend,
Marcello Mastroianni. In the U.S., he played a memorably professional
Alsatian assassin in
Three Days of the Condor (1975), a role which won him the
KCFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he appeared in
Flash Gordon (1980),
Conan the Barbarian (1982),
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.
[10] He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the Danish film
Pelle the Conqueror (1987), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Sydow has since won the
Australian Film Institute's 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 (
Dotknięcie ręki, 1993). He received international acclaim for his performance as
Nobel Prize–winning novelist
Knut Hamsun in
Jan Troell's biopic
Hamsun. He received his third Swedish
Guldbagge and his second Danish
Bodil for his depiction of a character often described as his
King Lear. Also in 1993, he appeared as Leland Gaunt in Needful Things. In 1996, he starred in Liv Ullmann's
Private Confessions (
Enskilda samtal). Back in Hollywood, he appeared in
What Dreams May Come (1998).
He was acclaimed for his role as an elderly lawyer in
Scott Hicks's
Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2002, Sydow had one of his largest commercial successes, co-starring with
Tom Cruise in
Steven Spielberg's science fiction
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, Sydow starred in the box-office hit
Rush Hour 3. He followed that with
Julian Schnabel's foreign film
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the memoir by
Jean-Dominique Bauby.
Max von Sydow appeared in
Showtime's drama series
The Tudors, in which he portrayed
Otto, Cardinal Truchsess von Waldburg, a German-born clergyman who tries to organize the defeat of
King Henry VIII. He also appeared in
Martin Scorsese's 2010 film adaptation of
Shutter Island and
Ridley Scott's 2010 adaptation of
Robin Hood, playing Robin's blind stepfather Sir Walter Loxley.
[11]
Sydow voices the character of Esbern in
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released on 11 November 2011. He narrated the initial teaser trailer for the game.
[12][13]
In April 2013, Max 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.
[14]
In March 2014, Sydow guest-starred in the animated sitcom
The Simpsons, and in 2015 he had a role in the sequel
Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
[15] In 2016, he is scheduled to join the
HBO series
Game of Thrones in
Season 6 as the
Three-eyed Raven.
[16]
Personal life
On
August 1, 1951, Max von Sydow married actress Christina Inga Britta
Olin (1926–98); the couple had two sons, Clas and Henrik, who appeared
with him in the film
Hawaii, playing his son at different ages. He and Olin divorced on February 26, 1979.
He is currently in his second marriage, to the French filmmaker Catherine Brelet; they married on April 30, 1997 in
Provence. In 2002 he became a citizen of France, at which time he had to give up his Swedish citizenship.
[2]
Sydow is reported to be either an
agnostic[9] or an
atheist.
[17]
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Director |
Notes |
| 1949 |
Only a Mother |
Nils |
Alf Sjöberg |
|
| 1951 |
Miss Julie |
Hand |
Alf Sjöberg |
|
| 1953 |
Ingen mans kvinna (sv) |
Olaf |
Lars-Eric Kjellgren |
|
| 1956 |
Rätten att älska (sv) |
Bergman |
Mimi Pollak |
|
| 1957 |
The Seventh Seal |
Antonius Block |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| Wild Strawberries |
Henrik Åkerman |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| Prästen i Uddarbo (sv) |
Gustaf Ömark |
Kenne Fant |
|
| 1958 |
Brink of Life |
Harry Andersson |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| Rabies |
Bo Stensson Svenningson |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| The Magician |
Albert Emanuel Vogler |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| 1960 |
The Virgin Spring |
Töre |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| The Wedding Day (sv) |
Anders Frost |
Kenne Fant |
|
| 1961 |
Through a Glass Darkly |
Martin |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| 1962 |
Adventures of Nils Holgersson |
The Father |
Kenne Fant |
|
| The Mistress |
Married Man |
Vilgot Sjöman |
|
| 1963 |
Winter Light |
Jonas Persson |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| 1965 |
4x4 |
Kvist |
Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt,
Klaus Rifbjerg,
Rolf Clemens,
Maunu Kurkvaara
& Jan Troell |
Segment: "Uppehåll i myrlandet" |
| The Greatest Story Ever Told |
Jesus Christ |
George Stevens |
|
| The Reward |
Scott Swenson |
Serge Bourguignon |
|
| 1966 |
Hawaii |
Reverend Abner Hale |
George Roy Hill |
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| The Quiller Memorandum |
Oktober |
Michael Anderson |
|
| Here's Your Life |
Smålands-Pelle |
Jan Troell |
|
| 1968 |
Hour of the Wolf |
Johan Borg |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| Black Palm Trees (sv) |
Gustav Olofsson |
Lars-Magnus Lindgren |
|
| Shame |
Jan Rosenberg |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| 1969 |
Made in Sweden |
Magnus Rud |
Johan Bergenstråhle |
|
| The Passion of Anna |
Andreas Winkelman |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| 1970 |
The Kremlin Letter |
Colonel Kosnov |
John Huston |
|
| 1971 |
The Night Visitor |
Salem |
László Benedek |
|
| The Emigrants |
Karl Oskar |
Jan Troell |
|
| The Touch |
Andreas Vergerus |
Ingmar Bergman |
|
| The Apple War |
Roy Lindberg |
Tage Danielsson |
|
| 1972 |
Embassy |
Gorenko |
Gordon Hessler |
|
| The New Land |
Karl Oskar |
Jan Troell |
|
| 1973 |
The Exorcist |
Father Lankester Merrin |
William Friedkin |
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture |
| 1974 |
Steppenwolf |
Harry Haller |
Fred Haines |
|
| 1975 |
Egg! Egg! A Hardboiled Story |
The Father |
Hans Alfredson |
|
| Le miroir éclate |
Matthew Lawrence |
Claude d'Anna |
|
| Three Days of the Condor |
G. Joubert |
Sydney Pollack |
KCFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| The Ultimate Warrior |
Baron |
Robert Clouse |
|
| 1976 |
Cuore di cane |
Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazenski |
Alberto Lattuada |
|
| Illustrious Corpses |
Supreme Court's President |
Francesco Rosi |
|
| Foxtrot |
Larsen |
Arturo Ripstein |
|
| The Desert of the Tartars |
Hortiz |
Valerio Zurlini |
|
| Voyage of the Damned |
Captain Schroeder |
Stuart Rosenberg |
|
| 1977 |
Exorcist II: The Heretic |
Father Lankester Merrin |
John Boorman |
|
| March or Die |
François Marneau |
Dick Richards |
|
| Black Journal |
Lisa Carpi |
Mauro Bolognini |
|
| 1978 |
Brass Target |
Shelley |
John Hough |
|
| 1979 |
Hurricane |
Dr Danielsson |
Jan Troell |
|
| Bugie bianche |
Marcello Herrighe |
Stefano Rolla (it) |
|
| 1980 |
Death Watch |
Gerald Mortenhoe |
Bertrand Tavernier |
|
| Flash Gordon |
Ming the Merciless |
Mike Hodges |
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1981 |
Escape to Victory |
Major Karl von Steiner |
John Huston |
aka Victory |
| 1982 |
Conan the Barbarian |
King Osric |
John Milius |
|
| Flight of the Eagle |
Salomon August Andrée |
Jan Troell |
Venice Film Festival Pasinetti Cup for Best Actor |
| Hit Man (fr) |
Colonel O'Donnell |
José Antonio de la Loma (es) |
aka Jugando con la muerte |
| 1983 |
Le Cercle des passions (fr) |
Carlo di Vilalfratti |
Claude d'Anna |
|
| Strange Brew |
Brewmeister Smith |
Rick Moranis
& Dave Thomas |
aka The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew |
| Never Say Never Again |
Ernst Stavro Blofeld |
Irvin Kershner |
Independently produced James Bond film |
| 1984 |
Dreamscape |
Doctor Paul Novotny |
Joseph Ruben |
|
| Dune |
Doctor Kynes |
David Lynch |
|
| 1985 |
Code Name: Emerald |
Jurgen Brausch |
Jonathan Sanger |
|
| The Repenter |
Spinola |
Pasquale Squitieri |
|
| 1986 |
Hannah and Her Sisters |
Frederick |
Woody Allen |
|
| The Second Victory |
Dr Huber |
Gerald Thomas |
|
| The Wolf at the Door |
August Strindberg |
Henning Carlsen |
aka Oviri |
| Duet for One |
Dr Louis Feldman |
Andrei Konchalovsky |
|
| 1987 |
Pelle the Conqueror |
Lassefar Karlsson |
Bille August |
Bodil Award Best Actor
European Film Award for Best Actor
Guldbagge Award Best Actor[18]
Robert Festival Best Actor
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor (3rd place)
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor |
| 1988 |
Katinka |
|
Max von Sydow |
First and only film as director
Won the awards for Best Film and Best Director at the 24th Guldbagge Awards.[19] |
| 1989 |
Ghostbusters II |
Vigo the Carpathian |
Ivan Reitman |
Voice, dubbed voice |
| Red King, White Knight |
Szaz |
Geoff Murphy |
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Miniseries or a Movie |
| 1990 |
The Bachelor |
Von Schleheim |
Roberto Faenza |
|
| A Violent Life |
Pope Clement VII |
Giacomo Battiato |
|
| Father |
Joe Mueller |
John Power |
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| Awakenings |
Dr Peter Ingham |
Penny Marshall |
|
| 1991 |
A Kiss Before Dying |
Thor Carlsson |
James Dearden |
|
| Europa |
Narrator |
Lars von Trier |
Voice |
| Until the End of the World |
Henry Farber |
Wim Wenders |
|
| The Ox |
Vicar |
Sven Nykvist |
|
| The Best Intentions |
Johan Åkerblom, Anna's father |
Bille August |
|
| 1992 |
The Silent Touch |
Henry Kesdi |
Krzysztof Zanussi |
aka Dotknięcie ręki, Tokyo International Film Festival Best Actor Award[20] |
| 1993 |
Grandpa's Journey |
Simon S.L. Fromm |
Staffan Lamm (sv) |
|
| Needful Things |
Leland Gaunt |
Fraser C. Heston |
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor |
| 1994 |
Time is Money |
Joe Kaufman |
Paolo Barzman |
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Best Actor |
| 1995 |
Judge Dredd |
Judge Fargo |
Danny Cannon |
|
| 1996 |
Hamsun |
Knut Hamsun |
Jan Troell |
Guldbagge Award Best Actor
Valladolid International Film Festival Best Actor |
| Jerusalem |
Vicar |
Bille August |
|
| 1998 |
What Dreams May Come |
The Tracker |
Vincent Ward |
|
| 1999 |
Snow Falling on Cedars |
Nels Gudmundsson |
Scott Hicks |
|
| 2001 |
Sleepless |
Ulisse Moretti |
Dario Argento |
|
| Druids |
Guttuart |
Jacques Dorfmann (fr) |
|
| Intacto |
Samuel |
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo |
|
| 2002 |
Minority Report |
Director Lamar Burgess |
Steven Spielberg |
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| Les amants de Mogador |
|
Souheil Ben-Barka |
|
| 2005 |
Heidi |
Uncle Alp |
Paul Marcus |
|
| 2006 |
The Inquiry |
Tiberius |
Giulio Base |
|
| 2007 |
Rush Hour 3 |
Reynard |
Brett Ratner |
|
| Emotional Arithmetic |
Jakob Bronski |
Paolo Barzman |
Nominated – Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role |
| The Diving Bell and the Butterfly |
Papinou |
Julian Schnabel |
|
| 2009 |
Solomon Kane |
Josiah Kane |
Michael J. Bassett |
|
| A Man and His Dog |
The Commander |
Francis Huster |
Cameo |
| 2010 |
Shutter Island |
Dr Jeremiah Naehring |
Martin Scorsese |
|
| Robin Hood |
Sir Walter Loxley |
Ridley Scott |
|
| The Wolfman |
Man on train with silver cane (uncredited) |
Joe Johnston |
Even though his part was removed from the theatrical cut, there is still a credit for "Assistant to Mr. von Sydow". |
| 2011 |
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |
The Renter |
Stephen Daldry |
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Georgia Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 2012 |
Truth & Treason |
Frank Fikeis |
|
|
| Branded |
Joseph Pascal |
Jamie Bradshaw
& Aleksandr Dulerayn |
|
| 2013 |
Dragons 3D |
Dr Alistair Conis |
Marc Fafard |
|
| 2015 |
The Letters |
Father Celeste van Exem |
William Riead |
|
| Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
Lor San Tekka |
J. J. Abrams |
|
| 2016 |
The First, the Last |
The undertaker |
Bouli Lanners |
|
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 1957 |
Herr Sleeman kommer |
The Hunter |
|
| 1967 |
The Diary of Anne Frank |
Otto Frank |
|
| 1984 |
Samson and Delilah |
Sidka |
|
| The Soldier's Tale |
The Devil (voice) |
Animated film by R. O. Blechman for PBS |
| Le Dernier Civil |
Johann Kaspar Bäuerle |
Miniseries |
| 1985 |
Kojak: The Belarus File |
Peter Barak |
|
| The Last Place on Earth |
Fridtjof Nansen |
Miniseries |
| Quo Vadis? |
The Apostle Peter |
Miniseries |
| Christopher Columbus |
King John of Portugal |
Miniseries |
| 1986 |
Gösta Berlings saga (sv) |
Melchior Sinclaire |
Miniseries |
| 1990 |
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes |
Father Siemes |
|
| 1993 |
Och ge oss skuggorna |
Eugene O'Neill |
Björn Melander (sv) |
| The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles |
Sigmund Freud |
Episode: "Vienna, November 1908" |
| 1994 |
A che punto è la notte (it) |
Archbishop of Turin |
|
| Radetzkymarsch (de) |
Baron Franz von Trotta und Sipolje |
|
| Uncle Vanya |
Professor Serebryakov |
|
| 1995 |
Citizen X |
Dr Alexandr Bukhanovsky |
Nominated – CableACE Award for Supporting Actor in a Movie or a Miniseries |
| 1996 |
Samson and Delilah |
Narrator |
Voice |
| Private Confessions |
Jacob |
|
| 1997 |
Hostile Waters |
Admiral Chernavin |
|
| La principessa e il povero (it) |
Epos |
|
| Solomon (it) |
David |
|
| 2000 |
Nuremberg |
Samuel Irving Rosenman |
Miniseries |
| 2004 |
Hidden Children - Escape of the Innocents (nl) |
Valobra |
|
| Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King |
Eyvind |
|
| 2009 |
The Tudors |
Cardinal von Walburg |
4 episodes |
| 2014 |
The Simpsons |
Claus Sigler |
Voice |
| 2016 |
Game of Thrones |
The Three-eyed Raven |
3 episodes
Pending – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series |
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 2009 |
Ghostbusters: The Video Game |
Vigo the Carpathian |
Voice |
| 2011 |
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim |
Esbern |
Voice |
| 2016 |
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
Lor San Tekka |
Voice |
No comments:
Post a Comment