In 1955, Von Sydow moved to Malmö, where he met his mentor Ingmar Bergman. His first work with Bergman occurred on stage at the Malmö Municipal Theatre. Von Sydow later would work with Bergman on films such as The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde inseglet, 1957), Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället, 1957) and The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan, 1960). In The Seventh Seal von Sydow is the knight who plays a chessgame with Death, in order to buy time for his family-- a scene and a film which were both breakthoughs for the director.
It was in these films that von Sydow perfected his craft, beginning to display the great talent that enabled a 53 year screen career. Von Sydow came to dominate the screen as he did on stage, becoming an idol of the international arthouse. Critical recognition came as early as 1954 when he was awarded the Royal Foundation Culture Award. Von Sydow worked profusely on stage and screen in Scandinavia and resisted increasing calls from the United States to go to Hollywood. After being seen in Bergman's Academy Award-winning films and having been first choice for the title role of Dr. No, Von Sydow finally went to America after agreeing to star in the film which was to lead to much greater recognition, in the role of Jesus in George Stevens' grandly titled, all-star epic The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). Because his talents were soon in demand in other American productions, von Sydow and his family eventually moved to Los Angeles.
From 1965 von Sydow became a regular on the American screen while maintaining a presence in his native Sweden. Though perhaps typecast as a villain, he was rewarded in the United States with two Golden Globe nominations for Hawaii and The Exorcist in 1973. In the mid 1970s, von Sydow moved to Rome and appeared in a number of Italian films, becoming friendly with another screen legend, Marcello Mastroianni. In the U.S., he played a memorably professional Alsatian assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, von Sydow appeared in both serious films, such as Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and David Lynch's Dune (1984), and less serious ones, like Strange Brew (1983).
Von Sydow has since won The Australian Film Institute Best Actor Award for his title role in Father (1989), the Guldbagge Best Director Award for his only directorial foray Katinka (Ved vejen, 1988), based on a novel by Herman Bang, and the Best Actor Award at The Tokyo International Film Festival for The Silent Touch (Dotknięcie ręki, 1993).
He received international acclaim for his performance as Nobel Prize-winning novelist Knut Hamsun in Jan Troell's biopic Hamsun . He received his third Swedish Guldbagge and his second Danish Bodil for his depiction of a character often described as his King Lear. In 1996 Von Sydow starred in Liv Ullmann's Private Confessions (Enskilda samtal). Back in Hollywood, he appeared in What Dreams May Come in a role which was something of a tip of the hat to his performance in The Exorcist.
He was acclaimed for his role as an elderly lawyer in Scott Hicks' Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2002, von Sydow had one of his largest commercial successes, co-starring with Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's widely popular sci-fi thriller Minority Report. In 2003, he played mentor character Eyvind in the European TV adaptation of the "Ring of the Nibelungs" saga. The show set ratings records and was released in the USA as Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King.
Write a Review
