Max von Sydow, star of Bergman films, ‘The Exorcist,’ dies at 90
Swedish actor Max von Sydow, the stately import whose theater roots laid the groundwork for a vast onscreen career in nearly a dozen Ingmar Bergman productions as well as defining roles in “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Exorcist” and “Game of Thrones,” has died.
The two-time Oscar nominee died Sunday, his agency confirmed Monday morning. He was 90.
The veteran actor’s rich repertory included Jesus Christ, clergymen, pontiffs, knights, conquerors, attorneys, sinister doctors, stateside villains and the devil incarnate — and that was just on film. Von Sydow continued to work in theater and smaller Swedish projects in his later years.
In a career that stretches from 1949 onward, there was rarely a year when he didn’t have a project in movie houses.
Many of his films — and there are more than 100 of them — are considered classics, beginning with his early work with Swedish icon and former mentor Bergman. Von Sydow hit the global stage playing chess with the devil in Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” in 1957. It was the first of 11 memorable films with Bergman as part of the filmmaker’s repertory company of actors.
He starred in several of his landmark movies, including 1958’s “The Magician,” 1960’s “The Virgin Spring,” 1961’s “Through a Glass Darkly” and 1963’s
“Winter Light.” He played the lead in only six of the 11 features they made together between 1957 and 1971. He last worked with the filmmaker on the TV movie “Private Confessions” (1998), written by Bergman and directed by Liv Ullman, a frequent co-star of Von Sydow’s, playing his mother’s Uncle Jacob. He also played his grandfather in 1992’s “The Best Intentions.”
“Whatever good I have done on screen I owe to him,” Von Sydow said in a 2013 Times interview. “I have learned discipline. I have learned concentration and the joy of acting.”
After making his U.S. debut as Jesus Christ in George Stevens’ final film, 1965’s “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” Von Sydow built up an impressively varied body of work that included William Friedkin’s 1973 horror blockbuster “The Exorcist,” Sydney Pollack’s 1975 thriller “Three Days of the Condor” and Martin Scorsese’s 2010 psychological thriller “Shutter Island.”
Von Sydow was only 43 when he played Father Merrin, “The Exorcist’s” titular Jesuit priest, though his devout alter ego was well into his 80s. Makeup artist Dick Miller added years to his visage and the actor earned his second Golden Globe nomination for the role (his first was for 1966’s “Hawaii” with Julie Andrews and Richard Harris) and the horror classic was among his biggest box-office successes.
His portrayal of an impoverished farm worker in 1988’s “Pelle the Conqueror” by Danish filmmaker Bille August, is often considered one of his greatest roles and it brought him worldwide acclaim as well as his first lead-actor Oscar nomination, despite it being a foreign language film. The film was Denmark’s official Oscar entry and won in the foreign language category.