Swedish film actor Max von Sydow is a two-time Academy Award and Emmy nominee. He became famous back in the fifties of the last century, playing the main character in Ingmar Bergman's black-and-white film "The Seventh Seal". Among his recent works is the role of the Three-Eyed Raven in the popular TV series Game of Thrones.
Early years and collaboration with Bergman
Max von Sydow was born in Sweden in 1929. While still in high school, he began to get involved in theatrical art and became one of the co-founders of the teenage theater club.
After school, Max studied at the creative studio at the Royal Drama Theater (Stockholm). And just during his student years, he first appeared on the movie screen - in Alf Schoberg's film "Only a Mother".
Max von Sydow graduated from the studio in 1951. And in the same year, on August 1, he married the artist Christine Olin, who later gave birth to two sons from him - Klas and Henrik.
In 1955, in the Swedish city of Malmo, young Max von Sydow met the legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Two years later, Bergman created the film-parable "The Seventh Seal" about how the medieval knight Agnelius Blok (and von Sydow played his role) plays a chess game with Death, thereby trying to delay the death of his companions. The film made a splash in Europe and America. Both the director and the leading actor instantly became recognizable persons.
Then Mark von Sydow starred in two more iconic Bergman films ("Strawberry Glade" and "Maiden Spring"), and this strengthened his status as a high-level actor.
Max von Sydow's first works in Hollywood
Max von Sydow began working in the USA in 1965. The first Hollywood tape with his participation had a very intricate title - "The Greatest Stories Ever Told." In this tape, the Swedish actor played Jesus Christ. The role turned out to be quite successful, after the release of the film, Syudov began to receive many business proposals from Hollywood filmmakers. Over the next few years, he starred in such American films as The Qwilleran Memorandum, The Hour of the Wolf, Three Days of the Condor, Passion, Letter from the Kremlin.
In 1971, the Swedish actor played the role of the clergyman of Lancaster Merrin in the famous horror film The Exorcist, and this was another important milestone in his career. For this role, the Swedish actor was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Quite quickly, Max von Sydow became a real star in the States and even at some point moved his family here from Scandinavia. However, already in 1979 he divorced his first wife Christina and became a bachelor.
The creativity of the actor in the eighties and nineties
In the 1980s, von Sydow took part in the filming of such Hollywood films as Flash Gordon (1980), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Dune (1984), Duet for a Soloist (1986).
In parallel, he continued to work in European cinema. And as a result, it was for his role in the Danish film Pelle the Conqueror in 1987 that the artist was nominated for an Oscar for the second time.
In 1988, Max von Sydow directed the film Katinka, the script of which was based on the novel by the classic of Danish prose Hermann Bang. This is his only directorial work, and for it, by the way, he was awarded the Scandinavian film award "Guldbagge".
In 1993, von Sydow received the Tokyo Festival award in the category "Best Actor" for his role in the film "A Touch of the Hand" (directed by Pole Krzysztof Zanussi).
In 1996, the actor brilliantly played the famous Norwegian prose writer Knut Hamsun in the biography film Hamsun. For this work, he again received the Guldbagge Prize. Many film critics consider Hamsun to be one of von Sydow's most impressive roles.
In 1997, in the French province of Provence, von Sydow married a woman named Catherine Brele, who is a film producer by profession. Now von Sydow permanently lives with Catherine in Paris.
In 1998, he played The Carrier in Vincent Ward's Where Dreams May Come. Here Robin Williams became his filming partner.
Max von Sydow in the 21st century
In 2002, the Swedish actor starred in the fantastic high-budget thriller Minority Report (directed by Steven Spielberg). And this is by far one of the most commercially successful films in von Sydow's rich filmography.
After that, the artist played Eyvind in Ring of the Nibelungen (2004), Emperor Tiberius in Investigation (2006), Dr. Neuring in Isle of the Damned (2010), Sir Locksley in Robin Hood (2010).
Interestingly, even in recent years, von Sydow, already in a very old age, could be seen in many popular film projects. Let's say that in 2015 he played in the epic film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in 2016 he appeared in the television series Game of Thrones (as the Three-Eyed Raven), and in 2018 he starred in the French-Belgian drama Kursk. telling about the tragedy that happened with the Russian nuclear submarine.
