The Passionate actor, Knight of Ingmar Bergman in Le Septième Sceau, but also an actor of Star Wars and Game of Thrones, the Franco-Swedish actor in hundreds of productions died on Sunday.
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929, in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He is 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 father’s partial German ancestry.
In the Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman, we discovered him playing a game of chess in the face of Death. The actor Max von Sydow died Sunday, at 90 years, announced by Catherine Brelet, said her husband passed away at their home in France on Sunday.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the death of Max Von Sydow on March 8, 2020,” announced producer Catherine Von Sydow, confirming information from Paris Match.
With a hundred films and productions to his credit, in the United States as in Europe, Max von Sydow is one of the significant figures of the 7th art since the Second World War. Born on April 10, 1929, in Sweden, Carl Adolf von Sydow grew up in a bourgeois family in Lund, where he first practiced in the theater. Spotted by director Ingmar Bergman, he was first assigned a role in a play at the Malmö theater in 1955 before being hired for the great work of the Swedish filmmaker, The Seventh Seal, in 1957. He played the main character: a former crusader back in Sweden plagued by metaphysical questions. Until 2015, when he appeared in the poster for the seventh episode of the Star Wars saga, the actor will have chained various roles and cult films with exemplary regularity.
After having filmed ten times for Bergman, his career took a new turn in 1973: behind the lens of William Friedkin, he played Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist. Various feature films follow, from Three Days of the Condor by Syndey Pollack to Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980), Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982), or Dune by David Lynch (1984). His career found a new lease of life in the early 2000s. He was the big villain in Minority Report for Steven Spielberg, who adapted K. Dick (2002), Doctor Naehring of Shutter Island for Martin Scorsese (2010), or even the stepfather of Marianne in the robin Hood of Ridley Scott the same year. On TV, we saw it again in the Game of Thrones series.
When a retrospective dedicated to Ingmar Bergman in 2014, the immense actor had told Le Figaro what links he had managed to forge with the director.
Le Figaro. – Impossible to separate from Bergman, since he made you the Knight of the Seventh Seal.
Max VON SYDOW. -He taught me everything about the profession, first in the theater, then in the cinema. He worked in the same way for one and the other: he had a talent for a conductor to tune everyone in the same passion for the work. I owe him the discipline of work, a little philosophy, and an extraordinary friendship. We had the same environment, very cultivated and deeply religious families. His parents were like mine, strict Lutherans. We have discussed religion a lot together. He had a deep faith, and I regret that I did not measure this depth well, then, because I was young and in reaction against Protestantism. But I understood it later. There are insurmountable difficulties in writing and things that speak to your heart. You must enter the mystery and accept the doubt. Faith is always linked to doubt. But we must not stop questioning.
What memories do you have of the Tartar Desert, filmed with Jacques Perrin in 1976?
Light, Remarkable, space, beauty. And all the lost dreams of these men in an isolated fortress, who would like to be heroic, and at the same time are afraid. My character is an honest man who understands illusion and threat better than others. But he too ends up being discouraged. When Jacques Perrin offered me the role, I was captivated by this bitter, alarming story. Of all the actors he has brought together, not many of us are still of this world
And the citadel of Bam, in Iran, where you turned, disappeared in an earthquake
Yes. The film is still a very moving document for me. When you see the decor on the screen, it looks like a desolate landscape, but next to it, there was a lively city. We lived in caravans loaned by the shah; it was not yet the time of the ayatollahs. I was fascinated by this citadel and by the desert.
Is this the first time you have discovered the desert?
I have been an immigrant several times. I left for the United States in the 1960s, without the ambition to become a Hollywood star, but because it was exciting and stimulating. The results are mixed. What characters to offer to a stranger with an accent? Often villains, sometimes scholars or artists I lived in Italy for two years, because I was seduced by Rome and by the Italian language, which I found funny and charming. But it was only in France that I became a citizen.
What made you choose French nationality?
History, culture. I will not have time to taste all the wines or all the cheeses. Nor to study all the movements of an extremely complicated past, from the mixture between the Gauls and the Romans to the emergence of central power. But I explore this wealth with happiness. My father was an academic specializing in Irish folklore. He had studied Gaelic. He fed us with Celtic and Nordic legends and traditions. I take my interest in popular cultures from him. I love the Christmas party in Provence. I love the wisdom and knowledge of nature that we still find in some shepherds who live like two hundred years ago.
What about today’s society?
I see that she has the same obsession with equality as in Sweden. We have no right to be better or different. It is boring. By trying to simplify things, we complicate them enormously. Because it is hard to be different, we want to force everyone to be the same. But why not just accept exceptions as exceptions?
Film Credits
Echoes of the Past (post-production)
Nikolas Andreou (aged) 2018The Command
Vladimir Petrenko 2016Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Video Game)
Lor San Tekka (voice) 2016Game of Thrones (TV Series)
Three-Eyed Raven- The Door (2016) … Three-Eyed Raven (as Max Von Sydow)- Oathbreaker (2016) … Three-Eyed Raven (as Max Von Sydow)- Home (2016) … Three-Eyed Raven (as Max Von Sydow) 2016The First, the Last
Le croque-mort 2015Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Lor San Tekka 2014The Simpsons (TV Series)
Klaus Ziegler- The War of Art (2014) … Klaus Ziegler (voice) 2014/IIThe Letters
Father Celeste van Exem 2013Dragons 3D (Short)
Dr. Alistair Conis 2012Branded
Marketing Guru 2011Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Renter 2011The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Video Game)
Esbern (voice) 2010The Last Norwegian Troll (Short)
The Last Norwegian Troll (voice) 2010Moomins and the Comet Chase
Narrator (French version, voice) 2010Robin Hood
Sir Walter Loxley 2010Shutter Island
Dr. Naehring 2010The Wolfman
Passenger on Train (only in director’s cut) (uncredited) 2009Oscar and the Lady in Pink
Dr. Dusseldorf 2009Solomon Kane
Josiah Kane 2009Ghostbusters (Video Game)
Vigo (voice) 2009The Tudors (TV Series)
Cardinal Von Waldburg- Search for a New Queen (2009) … Cardinal Von Waldburg- Problems in the Reformation (2009) … Cardinal Von Waldburg- The Northern Uprising (2009) … Cardinal Von Waldburg- Civil Unrest (2009) … Cardinal Von Waldburg 2008Un homme et son chien
Le commandant 2007Emotional Arithmetic
Jakob Bronski 2007Rush Hour 3
Reynard 2007The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Papinou 2006The Final Inquiry
Tiberius 2005/IHeidi
Uncle Alp 2004Curse of the Ring (TV Movie)
Eyvind 2004Hidden Children (TV Movie)
Valobra 2002Les amants de Mogador
2002Minority Report
Director Lamar Burgess 2001Intacto
Samuel 2001Druids
Guttuart 2001Sleepless
Moretti 2000Nuremberg (TV Mini-Series)
Samuel Rosenman- Episode #1.1 (2000) … Samuel Rosenman 1999Snow Falling on Cedars
Nels Gudmundsson (as Max Von Sydow) 1998What Dreams May Come
The Tracker 1998Professione fantasma (TV Series)
Psicanalista dell’Aldilà- Un’amica molto speciale (1998) … Psicanalista dell’Aldilà- Passi pericolosi (1998) … Psicanalista dell’Aldilà- Un vero signore (1998) … Psicanalista dell’Aldilà- Ricatti e misteri (1998) … Psicanalista dell’Aldilà- Suicidio assicurato (1998) … Psicanalista dell’AldilàShow all 11 episodes 1997Solomon (TV Mini-Series)
David 1997The Princess and the Pauper (TV Movie)
Epos 1997En frusen dröm (Documentary)
S.A. Andrée (voice) 1997Screen One (TV Series)
Admiral Chernavin- Hostile Waters (1997) … Admiral Chernavin 1996Truck Stop
1996Private Confessions (TV Movie)
Jacob 1996Samson and Delilah (TV Mini-Series)
Narratore (voice, uncredited) 1996Jerusalem
Vicar 1996Hamsun
Knut Hamsun 1995Lumière and Company (Documentary)
Jacob (segment “Liv Ullman”) (uncredited) 1995Capture – Meet Robert A. Robinson Photographer (Short)
Narrator 1995Depth Solitude (Short)
Narrator (English Version) (voice) 1995Atlanten (Documentary)
Narrator (voice) 1995Judge Dredd
Judge Fargo 1995Citizen X (TV Movie)
Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky 1994Onkel Vanja (TV Movie)
Professorn 1994Radetzkymarsch (TV Mini-Series)
Baron Franz von Trotta und Cipolje- Episode #1.2 (1994) … Baron Franz von Trotta und Cipolje- Episode #1.1 (1994) … Baron Franz von Trotta und Cipolje 1994A che punto è la notte (TV Movie)
Arcivescovo di Torino 1994Time Is Money
Joe Kaufman 1993Needful Things
Leland Gaunt (as Max Von Sydow) 1993Morfars resa
Simon S.L. Fromm 1993The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (TV Series)
Sigmund Freud- Vienna, November 1908 (1993) … Sigmund Freud 1993Och ge oss skuggorna (TV Movie)
Eugene O’Neill 1992The Touch
Henry Kesdi 1992The Best Intentions
Johan Åkerblom 1991The Best Intentions (TV Mini-Series)
Johan Åkerblom- Episode #1.3 (1991) … Johan Åkerblom (credit only)- Episode #1.2 (1991) … Johan Åkerblom- Episode #1.1 (1991) … Johan Åkerblom 1991Oxen
Vicar 1991Until the End of the World
Henry Farber 1991Europa
Narrator (voice) 1991A Kiss Before Dying
Thor Carlsson 1990Awakenings
Dr. Peter Ingham (as Max Von Sydow) 1990Father
Joe Mueller 1990Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (TV Movie)
Father Siemes 1990Una vita scellerata
Pope Clement VII 1990The Bachelor
Von Schleheim 1989Carl Jung: Wisdom of the Dream (TV Mini-Series documentary)
Carl Jung (voice) 1989Red King, White Knight (TV Movie)
Szaz 1989Ghostbusters II
Vigo (voice, uncredited) 1988Familjen Schedblad (TV Series)
Chefredaktör Lindström- Murveln (1988) … Chefredaktör Lindström 1987Pelle the Conqueror
Lassefar 1987The Second Victory
Dr. Huber 1986Duet for One
Dr. Louis Feldman 1986The Wolf at the Door
August Strindberg 1986Gösta Berlings saga (TV Mini-Series)
Melchior Sinclaire- Del 3 (1986) … Melchior Sinclaire- Del 2 (1986) … Melchior Sinclaire- Del 1 (1986) … Melchior Sinclaire 1986Hannah and Her Sisters
Frederick (as Max Von Sydow) 1985The Fascination
1985The Last Place on Earth (TV Mini-Series)
Fridtjof Nansen- Rejoice (1985) … Fridtjof Nansen- Poles Apart (1985) … Fridtjof Nansen- Minor Diversions (1985) … Fridtjof Nansen 1985The Repenter
Spinola 1985Code Name: Emerald
Jurgen Brausch 1985Christopher Columbus (TV Mini-Series)
King John of Portugal- Episode #1.4 (1985) … King John of Portugal- Episode #1.3 (1985) … King John of Portugal- Episode #1.2 (1985) … King John of Portugal- Episode #1.1 (1985) … King John of Portugal 1985Quo Vadis? (TV Mini-Series)
The Apostle Peter- Episode #1.6 (1985) … The Apostle Peter- Episode #1.5 (1985) … The Apostle Peter- Episode #1.4 (1985) … The Apostle Peter- Episode #1.3 (1985) … The Apostle Peter- Episode #1.2 (1985) … The Apostle Peter (credit only)Show all 6 episodes 1985Kojak: The Belarus File (TV Movie)
Peter Barak (as Max Von Sydow) 1984Dune
Doctor Kynes (as Max Von Sydow) 1984Le dernier civil (TV Movie)
Gérard Bauerle 1984Dreamscape
Doctor Paul Novotny 1984The Soldier’s Tale
The Devil (voice) 1984Samson and Delilah (TV Movie)
Sidka (as Max Von Sydow) 1984The Ice Pirates (uncredited) 1983Never Say Never Again
Blofeld (as Max Von Sydow) 1983Strange Brew
Brewmeister Smith (as Max Von Sydow) 1983Le cercle des passions
Carlo di Vilalfratti / Father 1982Jugando con la muerte
Coronel O’Donnell 1982The Flight of the Eagle
S.A. Andrée 1982Conan the Barbarian
King Osric (as Max Von Sydow) 1981Victory
The Germans – Major Karl Von Steiner (as Max Von Sydow) 1980Flash Gordon
The Emperor Ming (as Max Von Sydow) 1980Death Watch
Gerald Mortenhoe (as Max Von Sydow) 1979Footloose
Marcello Herrighe 1979Hurricane
Dr. Danielsson 1978Brass Target
Shelley Martin Webber 1977Black Journal
Lisa Carpi / Carabinieri Marshal 1977March or Die
Francois Marneau 1977Exorcist II: The Heretic
Father Merrin 1976Voyage of the Damned
Captain Schroeder (as Max Von Sydow) 1976The Desert of the Tartars
Captain Ortiz 1976The Far Side of Paradise
Larsen 1976Illustrious Corpses
Supreme Court’s President 1976Dog’s Heart
Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazenski 1975The Ultimate Warrior
Baron 1975Three Days of the Condor
Joubert (as Max Von Sydow) 1975Trompe l’oeil
Matthew Lawrence 1975Egg! Egg! A Hardboiled Story
The Father 1974Steppenwolf
Harry Haller 1973The Exorcist
Father Merrin 1973Kvartetten som sprängdes (TV Mini-Series)
Engineer Planertz- Lyckligt slut (1973) … Engineer Planertz- Falska stjärnor (1973) … Engineer Planertz- Nya tag! (1973) … Engineer Planertz- Kärlek och solsken (1973) … Engineer Planertz 1972Embassy
Gorenko 1972The New Land
Karl Oskar 1971I havsbandet (TV Mini-Series)
Narrator 1971The Apple War
Roy Lindberg 1971I själva verket är det alltid något annat som händer (TV Movie)
Anton 1971The Touch
Andreas Vergerus 1971The Emigrants
Karl Oskar 1971The Night Visitor
Salem 1970The Kremlin Letter
Colonel Kosnov 1969The Passion of Anna
Andreas Winkelman / Himself 1969Made in Sweden
Magnus Rud 1968Shame
Jan Rosenberg, Evas man 1968Black Palm Trees
Gustav Olofsson 1968Hour of the Wolf
Johan Borg 1967The Diary of Anne Frank (TV Movie)
Otto Frank 1966Here Is Your Life
Smålands-Pelle 1966The Quiller Memorandum
Oktober 1966Hawaii
Rev. Abner Hale 1965The Reward
Scott Swenson 19654 x 4
Kvist (segment “Uppehåll i myrlandet”) 1965Uppehåll i myrlandet (Short)
Alex Kvist 1965The Greatest Story Ever Told
Jesus 1963Winter Light
Jonas Persson 1962The Mistress
The Man 1962Wonderful Adventures of Nils
The Father 1961Through a Glass Darkly
Martin 1960Bröllopsdagen
Anders Frost 1960The Virgin Spring
Töre 1958The Magician
Albert Emanuel Vogler 1958Rabies (TV Movie)
Bo Stensson Svenningson 1958Spion 503
Tysk topagent Horst 1958Brink of Life
Harry Andersson 1957The Minister of Uddarbo
Gustaf Ömark 1957Wild Strawberries
Henrik Åkerman 1957Mr. Sleeman Is Coming (TV Movie)
Jägaren 1957The Seventh Seal
Antonius Block 1956Rätten att älska
Bergman 1953Ingen mans kvinna
Olof 1951Miss Julie
Hand 1949Only a Mother
Nils