Max von Sydow

'Max von Sydow' (qv) was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was 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 partial German ancestry.When he was in high school, he and a few fellow students, including 'Yvonne Lombard' (qv), started a theatre club which encouraged his interest in acting. After conscription, he began to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school (1948-1951), together with 'Lars Ekborg' (qv), 'Margaretha Krook' (qv) and 'Ingrid Thulin' (qv). His first role was as Nils the crofter in 'Alf Sjöberg' (qv)'s _Rya Rya nur eine Mutter (1949)_ (qv). After graduation, he worked at the city theatres in Norrköping and Malmö.His work in the movies by 'Ingmar Bergman' (qv) (especially _The Seventh Seal (1957)_ (qv), including the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death) made him well-known internationally, and he started to get offers from abroad. His career abroad began with him playing Jesus in _The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)_ (qv); _Hawaii (1966)_ (qv) and _The Quiller Memorandum (1966)_ (qv). Since then, his career includes very different kind of characters, like Karl Oskar Nilsson in _The Emigrants (1971)_ (qv); Father Lankester Merrin in _The Exorcist (1973)_ (qv); Joubert the assassin in _Three Days of the Condor (1975)_ (qv), Emperor Ming in _Flash Gordon (1980)_ (qv); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the _Never Say Never Again (1983)_ (qv); Liet-Kynes in _Dune (1984)_ (qv) the artist Frederick in _Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)_ (qv); Lassefar in _Pelle the Conqueror (1987)_ (qv), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination; Dr. Peter Ingham in _Awakenings (1990)_ (qv); Lamar Burgess in _Minority Report (2002)_ (qv) and The Renter in _Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)_ (qv), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination.He became one of Sweden's most admired and professional actors, and is the only male Swedish actor to receive an Oscar nomination. He was nominated twice: for _Pelle the Conqueror (1987)_ (qv) in 1988 and for _Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)_ (qv) in 2012. He received the Guldbagge Award for Best Director in his directing debut, the drama film _Katinka (1988)_ (qv). In 2016, he joined the sixth season of the HBO series _Game of Thrones (2011)_ (qv) as the Three-eyed Raven, which earned him his Primetime Emmy Award nomination.'Max von Sydow' (qv) died on March 8, 2020, in Provence, France, and was survived by his wife 'Catherine Brelet' (qv) and four children. He was 90.::Mattias Thuresson