Max von Sydow Dies at 90

Acting Legend Max von Sydow Dies at 90

 

Max von Sydow, the two-time Oscar nominated actor remembered for his iconic roles in movies like The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Exorcist, Hannah and Her Sisters, not to mention 11 Ingmar Bergman movies, has passed away. He was 90 years of age.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow, on March 8, 2020,” a statement from his widow Catherine von Sydow read, sent via the actor’s international reps.
Born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family, von Sydow adopted the name "Max" from the star performer of a flea circus he saw. After serving in the Swedish military for two years, he studied at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, where he trained from 1948 to 1951, and made his screen debut in Swedish films Only a Mother and Miss Julie.
In 1955, von Sydow met his mentor, Swedish writer, producer and director Ingmar Bergman. Prior to their string of movies together, including The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, both in 1957, and The Virgin Spring in 1960, they worked together in a stage production at the Malmö Municipal Theatre.

By 1965, von Sydow finally traveled to America for a role in director George Steven’s epic The Greatest Story Ever Told, which unveiled the actor to a whole new generation of fans.

Ultimately, von Sydow appeared in other top U.S. films including Hawaii, The Exorcist, Flash Gordon, Three Days of the Condor and Dune. His first Academy Award nomination came for Best Performance by an Actor in 1987 foreign film Pelle the Conqueror. More recent was his supporting role in Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud in 2012.
In 2002, von Sydow had one of his largest commercial successes, co-starring with Tom Cruise in Stephen Spielberg’s science fiction thriller Minority Report. Other roles of note later in career included Rush Hour 3, Cannes award-winning pic The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.
On the small screen, he appeared in Showtime’s drama series The Tudors, was a guest voice on Fox’s The Simpsons and scored an Emmy nomination for his role on HBO’s Game of Thrones.
His final film role was set to be in Nicholas Dimitropoulos’ upcoming drama Echoes Of The Past, which has not been released yet.