Mai Zetterling facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mai Zetterling
Zetterling from a promotional postcard for Quartet (1948)
Born	Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (1925-05-24)24 May 1925 Västerås, Sweden
Died	17 March 1994(1994-03-17) (aged 68) London, England
Occupation	Actress, film director
Years active	1941–1994
Spouse(s)	Tutte Lemkow ​ ​ (m. 1944; div. 1953)​ David Hughes ​ ​ (m. 1958; div. 1979)​
Children	2

Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (born May 24, 1925 – died March 17, 1994) was a talented Swedish film director, writer, and actress. She worked in movies and television for over 50 years, from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Early life and acting start

Mai Zetterling was born in Västerås, Sweden. She came from a working-class family. When she was just 17 years old, she started her acting career at Dramaten, which is Sweden's national theatre. She appeared in films made during the war.

Becoming a film star

Mai Zetterling became well-known in 1944. This was after her role in the film Torment. The famous director Ingmar Bergman wrote this movie for her. In the film, she played a troubled shopgirl.

Soon after, she moved to England. She quickly became successful there with her main role in the film Frieda (1947). In this movie, she acted alongside David Farrar.

After a short time back in Sweden, where she worked with Ingmar Bergman again on his film Music in Darkness (1948), she returned to Britain. She starred in many British films. She acted with famous leading men like Tyrone Power, Dirk Bogarde, and Peter Sellers.

Some of her most famous films as an actress include:

• Quartet (1948), which was based on short stories by William Somerset Maugham.
• The Romantic Age (1949), directed by Edmond T. Gréville.
• Only Two Can Play (1962), where she co-starred with Peter Sellers.
• The Witches (1990), a movie based on Roald Dahl's popular book.

Mai Zetterling as a director

In the early 1960s, Mai Zetterling started directing films and writing books. Her first films were political documentaries. She also made a short film called The War Game (1963). This film was nominated for a BAFTA award. It also won a Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for Best Short Film.

One critic called her first feature film as a director "one of the most ambitious debuts since Citizen Kane." When some critics said she directed "like a man," she decided to explore themes about women's rights even more in her movies.

Her film The Girls (1968) had a cast of well-known Swedish actresses, including Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson. This movie talked about women's freedom in a world mostly controlled by men. The characters in the film compared their lives to those in an old play called Lysistrata. They realized that things had not changed much for women since ancient times.

In 1966, Mai Zetterling also appeared on a BBC children's TV show called Jackanory. She narrated five episodes of Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson.

Personal life

Zetterling in 1948

Mai Zetterling was married to the Norwegian actor Tutte Lemkow from 1944 to 1953. They had two children, a daughter named Etienne and a son named Louis. Louis is now a professor of environmental sociology.

From 1958 to 1976, she was married to the British author David Hughes. David Hughes worked with her on her first films as a director. The couple were friends with the composer Michael Hurd. He wrote the music for some of her films, like Flickorna and Scrubbers.

Death

Mai Zetterling passed away from cancer on March 17, 1994, in her home in London. She was 68 years old. This was one year after her last role on television.

Selected filmography

As director (complete)

As actor (selected)

See also

In Spanish: Mai Zetterling para niños