MAX VON SYDOW
A giant of world cinema and so much more,
Max von Sydow has died aged 90.
1929-2020
I
t is very boring to be stuck in more or less one type of character,”
said Max von Sydow, who died on 8 March 2020. Although the Swedish
actor was duly revered for his titanic work for Ingmar Bergman, he also
brought great range to his 70-year career, with robust reserves of depth,
dedication and humanity as generously apportioned constants.Born 10 April 1929, von Sydow was
christened Carl Adolf before changing
his name to Max, after a lead in a flea
circus he saw while in the army. His
father was a folklore professor, his
mother a teacher. Expected to enter
academia, von Sydow instead enrolled
at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre,
before going on to bank a major film
breakthrough as the saturnine knight
in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.
If his long, lean physique and
shadowy bone structure seemed
tailor-made for tales of tested faith
and inner torment – The Virgin Spring,
Hour Of The Wolf and others – he also
diversified for Bergman. He brought
lightness to Wild Strawberries, and an
unsettling charisma to The Magician.
After turning down roles in Dr. No
and The Sound Of Music, von Sydow
made his international debut as Jesus
in The Greatest Story Ever Told. He grew
frustrated at having to take “outsider”
and “foreigner” roles in US films, buthe made audiences believe with a
powerhouse performance as Father
Merrin in The Exorcist. Elsewhere,
he brought stealth to Three Days Of
The Condor’s killer, Oscar-nominated
dignity to Pelle The Conqueror’s farmer
and deadpan self-awareness to
Woody Allen’s Hannah And Her Sisters.
Young ’80s viewers knew him for
?eZlay@hk]hg’s lavishly cruel Ming
the Merciless, stoners for his
Brewmeister Smith in the goofball
comedy Strange Brew.
Besides working with Spielberg,
Lynch and Scorsese, he lately imparted a
warm gravitas to genre roles in Star Wars:
Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Game
Of Thrones. Another Oscar nomination
beckoned for his silent role in Extremely
Loud & Incredibly Close, while his frail,
housebound father in The Diving Bell
And The Butterfly was a devastating
late-career revelation. “God,” his
character said, “they don’t make
them like me anymore.” Quite. KHFILM
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