Max von Sydow
10 April, 1929
| 1.92 m
Actor
Additional Crew
Director
Biography
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.When he was in high school, he and a few fellow students, including Yvonne Lombard, started a theatre club which encouraged his interest in acting. After conscription, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school (1948-1951), together with Lars Ekborg, Margaretha Krook and Ingrid Thulin. His first role was as Nils the crofter in Alf Sjöberg's Tylko matka (1949). After graduation, he worked at the city theatres in Norrköping and Malmö.His work in the movies by Ingmar Bergman (especially Siódma pieczęć (1957), including the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death) made him well-known internationally, and he started to get offers from abroad. His career abroad began with him playing Jesus in Opowieść wszech czasów (1965); Hawaje (1966) and Misja Quillera (1966). Since then, his career includes very different kind of characters, like Karl Oskar Nilsson in Emigranci (1971); Father Lankester Merrin in Egzorcysta (1973); Joubert the assassin in Trzy dni Kondora (1975), Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Nigdy nie mów nigdy (1983); Liet-Kynes in Diuna (1984) the artist Frederick in Hannah i jej siostry (1986); Lassefar in Pelle zwycięzca (1987), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination; Dr. Peter Ingham in Przebudzenia (1990); Lamar Burgess in Raport mniejszości (2002) and The Renter in Strasznie głośno, niesamowicie blisko (2011), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination.He became one of Sweden's most admired and professional actors, and is the only male Swedish actor to... show more
Movies
When a mysterious entity possesses a young girl, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
A knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague.
After an attempted assassination on Ambassador Han, Lee and Carter head to Paris to protect a French woman with knowledge of the Triads' secret leaders.
A powerful warrior seeks to avenge the genocide of his people and the murder of his parents at the hands of a snake cult.
A ruthless mercenary renounces violence after learning his soul is bound for hell. When a young girl is kidnapped and her family slain by a sorcerer's murderous cult, he is forced to fight and seek his redemption slaying evil.
A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
In 14th-century Sweden, an innocent yet pampered teenage girl and her family's pregnant and jealous servant set out from their farm to deliver candles to church, but only one returns from events that transpire in the woods along the way.
A mysterious new shop opens in a small town which always seems to stock the deepest desires of each shopper, with a price far heavier than expected.
Recently released from a mental hospital, Karin rejoins her emotionally disconnected family in their island home, only to slip from reality as she begins to believe she is being visited by God.
While vacationing on a remote German island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
Canada's most famous hosers, Bob and Doug McKenzie, get jobs at the Elsinore Brewery, only to learn that something is rotten with the state of it.
A man who can enter and manipulate people's dreams is recruited by a government agency to help cure the President of the United States of his nightmares about nuclear war but stumbles upon an assassination plot.
In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
A Japanese-American fisherman is accused of killing his neighbor at sea. In the 1950s, race figures into the trial. So does reporter Ishmael.
In a world where luck can be taken from a lucky person by a luckier person's touch, a small group of lucky people compete to be the luckiest and for the other contestants' luck.
An all-star, large scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
When his wife dies, Lasse takes his 12-year-old son, Pelle, from their home in Sweden to Denmark in search of a better life.
A traveling magician and his assistants are persecuted by authorities in Sweden of the 19th century. Their capture, however, didn't bring victory to those in power.
A recently divorced man meets an emotionally devastated widow and they begin a love affair.
A retired police detective and a young amateur sleuth team up to find a serial killer who's resumed a killing spree in Turin, Italy after a 17-year period.