Max von Sydow (1929 - 2020) was a Swedish-French actor, active in both European and American cinema.
Von Sydow started his cinematic career in his native country in 1949 and two of his most memorable roles include Knight Antonius Block in The Seventh Seal (1957), the first of his eleven films with director Ingmar Bergman, and the film that includes the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death;[1] and as Martin in Through a Glass Darkly (1961).
Beginning in 1965, von Sydow starred in Hollywood films; his debut was as Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). Other roles include as Father Merrin in The Exorcist (1973); Joubert in Three Days of the Condor (1975); Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983); Liet-Kynes in Dune (1984); Dr. Peter Ingham in Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in Minority Report (2002) and Lor San Tekka in (2015).
Von Sydow was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his roles as Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987) and The Renter in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2012). On television, von Sydow played the Three-eyed Raven in Game of Thrones. In 2011, he voiced Esbern in the video game .
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Swedish: [[Mr. Sleeman Is Coming|Herr Sleeman kommer]] | The Hunter | Television film | ||
| 1958 | Rabies | Bo Stensson Svenningson | TV movie | ||
| 1967 | The Diary of Anne Frank | Otto Frank | Television film | [12] | |
| 1973 | Kvartetten som sprängdes | Engineer Planertz | 4 episodes | [13] | |
| 1984 | Samson and Delilah | Sidka | Television film | ||
| The Soldier's Tale | The Devil | Voice, Television film | [14] | ||
| Le Dernier Civil | Johann Kaspar Bäuerle | Television film | |||
| 1985 | Kojak: The Belarus File | Peter Barak | Television film | ||
| The Last Place on Earth | Fridtjof Nansen | 3 episodes | |||
| Quo Vadis? | The Apostle Peter | 6 episodes | |||
| Christopher Columbus | King John of Portugal | 4 episodes | |||
| 1986 | Melchior Sinclaire | 3 episodes | |||
| 1989 | Red King, White Knight | Szaz | |||
| 1990 | Father Siemes | Television film | |||
| 1993 | Swedish: Och ge oss skuggorna | Eugene O'Neill | Television film | [15] | |
| The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Sigmund Freud | Episode: "Vienna, November 1908" | |||
| 1994 | Archbishop of Turin | Television film | |||
| Baron Franz von Trotta und Sipolje | 2 episodes | ||||
| Uncle Vanya | Professor Serebryakov | Television film | |||
| 1995 | Citizen X | Dr Alexandr Bukhanovsky | |||
| 1996 | Samson and Delilah | Narrator | Voice, Uncredited Television film | [16] | |
| Private Confessions | Jacob | Television film | |||
| 1997 | Hostile Waters | Admiral Chernavin | Television film | ||
| Epos | Television film | ||||
| Solomon | David | 3 episodes | |||
| 2000 | Nuremberg | Samuel Rosenman | Episode #1.1 | ||
| 2004 | Valobra | Television film | [17] | ||
| Eyvind | Television film | ||||
| 2009 | The Tudors | Cardinal von Walburg | 4 episodes | ||
| 2014 | The Simpsons | Klaus Ziegler | Voice, Episode: "The War of Art" | [18] | |
| 2016 | Game of Thrones | Three-eyed Raven | 3 episodes |
| Year | Title | Voice role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Vigo the Carpathian | [19] | |
| 2011 | Esbern | ||
| 2016 | Lor San Tekka |