by Nathaniel R
It is with great sadness we must announce the passing of Max von Sydow. The international acting legend had worked steadily since his big screen debut in Sweden in 1949. Multiple Swedish classics followed including Miss Julie, Wild Strawberries, and The Virgin Spring. International fame happened quickly through his mutli-film collaboration with Sweden's most celebrated auteur Ingmar Bergman. By the mid 60s he began headlining international productions, first as Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and by the 1970s he was a mandatory for prestige all star productions (Voyage of the Damned, The Exorcist). He's been a mainstay of cinema for 70 years, that exceedingly memorable long face flipping from sweet to sinister to authoritative to wise (and everything inbetween) on command for the demands of any role.
Before his death he completed a lead role in an as yet unreleased WW II drama Echoes of the Past which is currently in post-production. Let's pray it's a fitting swansong for one of the inarguable greats.
We had the privilege of interviewing him over coffee when he was making the awards rounds for The Diving Bell and Butterfly and he was sweet, humble, and talkative about his career and the cinema. We've begged the Academy to give him an Honorary Oscar quite frequently but, tragically, they didn't listen and they've missed their long long window to do so.
After the jump the first 10 Max von Sydow roles that jumped to mind in no particular order when we heard the news...
Minority Report (2002)
Pelle the Conqueror (1987), his first of two Oscar nominations
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
The Emigrants (1971)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
The Exorcist (1973)
Game of Thrones (2016)
The Magician (1958)
Three Days of Condor (1975)
The Seventh Seal (1957)
Which of his many classic roles are your favourites? And which sprang immediately to mind when you heard the sad news.