Max von Sydow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Max von Sydow
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Von Sydow at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
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| Born |
Carl Adolf von Sydow
10 April 1929 Lund, Sweden
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| Died | 8 March 2020 (aged 90) |
| Citizenship | Swedish (1929–2002) French (2002–2020) |
| Alma mater | Royal Dramatic Theatre |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1949–2020 |
| Spouse(s) |
Christina Olin
(m. 1951; div. 1979)Catherine Brelet
(m. 1997) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (father) |
Max von Sydow (born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a famous Swedish-French actor. He had a very long career, acting for 70 years in movies, TV shows, and plays in Europe and America. He appeared in over 150 films and many TV series, speaking different languages. Max von Sydow was known for playing many types of characters, from quiet heroes to funny artists and even scary villains.
He won many awards, including honors from the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. He was nominated for two Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars). One was for Best Actor in the movie Pelle the Conqueror (1987), and the other was for Best Supporting Actor in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011).
Max von Sydow first became famous around the world for playing a knight named Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's movie The Seventh Seal (1957). In this movie, there are famous scenes where his character plays chess with Death. He worked with director Ingmar Bergman in eleven films, including Wild Strawberries (1957), The Virgin Spring (1960), and The Touch (1971).
He made his first American movie as Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). He also starred in other well-known films like The Exorcist (1973), Flash Gordon (1980), and the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again (1983). He also had important roles in movies like Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). In 2016, he played the Three-eyed Raven in the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones, which earned him another award nomination.
Max von Sydow received several honors, including the Royal Foundation of Sweden's Cultural Award in 1954. He became a French citizen in 2002 and lived in France for the last 20 years of his life.
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Early Life and Education
Carl Adolf von Sydow was born on 10 April 1929 in Lund, Sweden. His father, Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, was a professor who studied folkloristics (the study of traditional stories and customs) at Lund University. His mother, Baroness Maria Margareta Rappe, was a schoolteacher. Max von Sydow had some German family history.
He went to Lund Cathedral School, where he learned English when he was young. He was expected to become a lawyer, but he became very interested in acting after seeing a play called A Midsummer Night's Dream. This made him start an acting group with his friends at school.
Max von Sydow served in the Swedish Army for two years. After his service, he studied acting at the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm from 1948 to 1951. While there, he helped start another theater group. He had his first small role in a play called Egmont. Even though he thought it was "almost a disaster," he received good reviews for his acting.
Max von Sydow's Acting Career
Starting His Career
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While studying at the Dramaten, Max von Sydow appeared in his first movies: Only a Mother (1949) and Miss Julie (1951). In 1951, he joined the Norrköping-Linköping Municipal Theatre, where he acted in nine plays. Later, he moved to the Helsingborg City Theatre, playing many roles, including Prospero in The Tempest. His theater work was praised, and in 1954, he received an award for young, promising actors.
Working with Ingmar Bergman
In 1955, Max von Sydow joined the Malmö City Theatre, where Ingmar Bergman was the main director. Their first movie together was The Seventh Seal (1957). In this film, von Sydow played Antonius Block, a knight returning from wars to a Sweden suffering from a terrible plague. The scene where his character plays chess with Death is one of the most famous moments in movie history.
Max von Sydow acted in 11 films directed by Ingmar Bergman. In The Magician (1958), he played a magician who stays silent for most of the movie. In The Virgin Spring (1960), he was a medieval landowner. He also appeared in Wild Strawberries (1957) and Winter Light (1963). Many of these films were nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
International Movies and Famous Roles
For a long time, Max von Sydow only worked in Sweden, even turning down offers from Hollywood. He was asked to play the villain in the James Bond movie Dr. No (1962) and Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), but he said no.
In 1965, he finally accepted a role in an American film, playing Christ in the epic movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. This movie introduced him to a much wider audience. After this, he often played villains, such as Emperor Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon (1980) and James Bond's enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Never Say Never Again (1983).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Max von Sydow often acted alongside Liv Ullmann in Bergman's films, like Hour of the Wolf (1968) and Shame (1968). He also starred with Ullmann in the two-part movie series The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972), which told the story of a Swedish family moving to America.
In 1973, Max von Sydow appeared in one of his most successful movies, The Exorcist. He played Father Lankester Merrin, a priest who helps a possessed girl. This role earned him another Golden Globe nomination. He also acted on Broadway in plays like The Night of the Tribades (1977).
In the 1980s, besides Flash Gordon and Never Say Never Again, he was in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Dune (1984). In 1987, he starred in Pelle the Conqueror, playing a poor Swedish worker who moves to Denmark with his son for a better life. This role was highly praised and earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
In 1988, Max von Sydow directed his only film, Katinka. The movie won awards in Sweden for Best Film and Best Director. He also voiced Vigo the Carpathian in the 1989 film Ghostbusters II.
Later Career and Achievements
Max von Sydow worked with Ingmar Bergman again in 1991 for The Best Intentions, and his final appearance in a Bergman-written film was Private Confessions (1996). In 1997, he played the famous writer Knut Hamsun in the movie Hamsun. He also appeared in films like Awakenings (1990) and Judge Dredd (1995). For his role in Father (1990), he won the Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award.
In 2002, Max von Sydow acted in the science fiction thriller Minority Report with Tom Cruise. In 2007, he was in the popular movie Rush Hour 3 and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
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In 2010, he played a doctor in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and Robin Hood's blind stepfather in Robin Hood. He received his second Oscar nomination for his role as a quiet elderly man in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011).
In 2015, he played the explorer Lor San Tekka in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In 2016, he joined the HBO series Game of Thrones as the Three-eyed Raven, earning him another Emmy nomination.
Max von Sydow also lent his voice to video games. He voiced Esbern in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) and narrated its first trailer. He also voiced characters in Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) and Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016).
His last movie role was in the war drama Echoes of the Past (2021), where he played one of the last survivors of a historical massacre.
Personal Life
Max von Sydow married actress Christina Inga Britta Olin in 1951. They had two sons, Clas and Henrik, who even appeared with him in the movie Hawaii. They divorced in 1979. In 1997, von Sydow married French filmmaker Catherine Brelet and adopted her two adult sons, Cédric and Yvan.
After marrying Catherine Brelet, Max von Sydow moved to Paris. In 2002, he became a citizen of France, which meant he had to give up his Swedish citizenship. He was known to have explored different beliefs about religion throughout his life.
Death
Max von Sydow passed away on 8 March 2020 at his home in Provence, France. He was 90 years old. He was survived by his wife and his four sons.
Interestingly, in 1968, Curt Bergfors named his large chain of international restaurants, Max Hamburgers, after Max von Sydow.
Awards and Nominations
Max von Sydow was nominated for two Academy Awards (Oscars). One was for Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and the other for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011). At 82, he was one of the oldest actors ever nominated for an Oscar. He also received two Golden Globe Awards nominations and two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. In 1982, he won the Best Actor prize at the Venice International Film Festival for his role in Flight of the Eagle. He also won 3 Guldbagge Awards (Swedish film awards) and received a special award from the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.
Images for kids
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Max von Sydow at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
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Max von Sydow in 1961
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Max von Sydow (left) with Povel Ramel and Beppe Wolgers, 1968
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Max von Sydow at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival
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Max von Sydow with a writer in 1992
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Max von Sydow in 2012
See also
In Spanish: Max von Sydow para niños
- List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
- List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
- List of Academy Award records – first Nordic actor to be nominated for acting, for Pelle the Conqueror (1988)
- List of actors nominated for Academy Awards for non-English performances
