Max von Sydow

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... receive an Oscar nomination. He was nominated twice: for Pelle zwycięzca (1987) in 1988 and for Strasznie głośno, niesamowicie blisko (2011) in 2012. He received the Guldbagge Award for Best Director in his directing debut, the drama film Ved vejen (1988). In 2016, he joined the sixth season of the HBO series Gra o tron (2011) as the Three-eyed Raven, which earned him his Primetime Emmy Award nomination.Max von Sydow died on March 8, 2020, in Provence, France, and was survived by his wife Catherine Brelet and four children. He was 90.show more