Max Von Sydow
- Category : 1929-births
- Type : MGP
- Profile : 5/1 - Heretical / Investigator
- Definition : Single
- Incarnation Cross : LAX The Clarion 1
Biography
Swedish actor noted for his prolific career in European and American screen productions, he eventually featured in more than 100 films and TV series. His most memorable film roles include Knight Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957), the earliest of 11 films he made with Bergman, which includes iconic scenes in which his character plays chess with Death.
He also played Jesus Christ in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and also appeared in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), David Lynch's Dune (1984), Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990), Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002), Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010). He later appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in HBO's Game of Thrones as Three-eyed Raven, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
Throughout his long career he received two Academy Award nominations for his performances in Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011). Von Sydow received the Royal Foundation of Sweden's Cultural Award in 1954, was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, and was named a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 17 October 2012.
Von Sydow married actress Christina Inga Britta Olin in 1951. They had two sons, Clas and Henrik, who appeared with him in the film Hawaii. The couple divorced in 1979. Von Sydow later married documentarian Catherine Brelet in 1997, and adopted Brelet's two children from a previous marriage.
In 2002, Von Sydow became a citizen of France, at which time he had to relinquish his Swedish citizenship. Von Sydow died on 8 March 2020 at the age of 90 at his home in Provence, France.