Max Von Sydow

Max Carl Adolf Von Sydow is an award-winning Swedish actor and one of the few actors to be nominated for an Oscar role in a foreign language film. He received the nomination in 1987 for the movie Pelle the Conqueror. 
 

He was born on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skane, to a middle-class family with noble roots. His father, Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow was a well-known professor at the University of Lund . His mother, Baroness Greta Rappe, was a schoolteacher.
 

Von Sydow went to the Cathedral School of Lund where he started to learn German and English when he was just nine years old. 
 

After conscription into the National Service, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's (Dramaten) acting school in Stockholm . He trained there between the 1948 and 1951, and made his screen debut while still in school. In 1949 he appeared in Alf Sjöberg’s film, Only a Mother (Bara en Mor). Von Sydow followed this role with a part in the Swedish classic after August Strindberg, Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) in 1951.
 

In 1955 he moved to Malmö, where he met his mentor Swedish stage and film director, Ingmar Bergman. He first worked with Bergman on the stage of the Malmö Municipal Theater. Von Sydow later appeared in several of Bergman’s films including The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet ) in 1957; Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället), also in 1957; and The Virgin Spring  (Jungfrukällan ) in 1960.

Von Sydow’s work with Bergman soon became noticed and it wasn’t long before he became an idol of the international Arthouse. Hollywood expressed interest in him, but he resisted coming to the . In 1965 Von Sydow finally agreed to come to Hollywood to play the role of Jesus in George Steven’s all-star epic, The Greatest Story Ever Told. 

In 1966 he appeared in the American movie Hawaii for which he won a Golden Globe nomination. He won another Golden Globe nomination for his role as Father Lankester Merrin in 1973’s The Exorcist.
 

From there Von Sydow began to get more acting roles in international films.

In 1988 Von Sydow branched out into directing. His only directorial foray, Katinka (Ved vejen) won him the Guldbagge Best Director Award. He won The Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award for the Australian war film, Father in 1989. In 1993 Von Sydow won another award, this time the Best Actor Award at The Tokyo International Film Festival for The Silent Touch (Dotkniecie reki).

He landed the role of elderly lawyer Nels Gudmundsson in Scott Hicks 1999 drama, Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2002 Von Sydow co-starred with Tom Cruise in one of his largest commercial successes, the sci-fi thriller Minority Report. He played the part of Pre-Crime Director Lamar Burgess. In 2003 he had the role of Eyvind in the 2004 European television adaptation of the Ring of the Nibelungs saga. The show was later released in the as Dark Kingdom : The Dragon King.

Von Sydow currently lives with his second wife, French film make Catherine Brelet, in Paris .