Bengt Ekerot

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Nils Bengt Folke Ekerot (born February 8, 1920 in Stockholm ; † November 26, 1971 there ) was a Swedish actor and director who was one of the leading theater men of his generation in Sweden. He became internationally known as "Death" in the classic film The Seventh Seal from 1957.

life and career

Bengt Ekerot's portrayal of death in Ingmar Bergman's film classic The Seventh Seal from 1957 became world famous . His appearance as death - wrapped under a black hooded coat, with a white face, polite and educated - was copied in countless later films. Together with Ingmar Bergman, who was a good friend of his, he had already worked on the appearance and appearance of death. Although The Seventh Seal was by far his best-known screen appearance, Ekerot played a total of 30 other Swedish films between 1940 and 1968. While in the 1940s he mainly played sensitive young men, for example in Dynamite (1947) or the television film Hamlet ( 1955), he was seen in later years mainly in supporting roles as a character actor. As a director, he also directed three feature films and four television films between 1946 and 1962.

Ekerot's career in theater was at least as significant. He was one of the most important actors and directors in the Swedish theater of the 20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s he worked as a director at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, where he had already trained as an actor between 1938 and 1941. In Stockholm, about 1,956 was for the first international performance of Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill in charge. Ekerot also worked at the Gothenburg City Theater and the Malmö Music Theater .

Ekerot devoted himself to his duties as an actor and director with great enthusiasm, while in his private life he struggled with addiction problems. His marriage to the actress Margareta Hallin (* 1931) was divorced. He died of lung cancer in 1971 at the age of 51.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1940: Med livet som insats
  • 1945: Rosen på Tistelön
  • 1946: Det glada kalaset (only direction)
  • 1947: Dynamite
  • 1955: Hamlet (TV movie)
  • 1956: Boards that mean the world (Sceningång) (also director)
  • 1957: The seventh seal (Det sjunde inseglet)
  • 1958: Jazz gutters
  • 1958: The Face (Ansiktet)
  • 1966: Here you have your life (Här har du ditt liv)
  • 1967: Come on , let's go crazy (Livet är stenkul)
  • 1968: You're out (Ole dole doff)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b biography on website "Ingmar Bergman"
personal data
SURNAME Ekerot, Bengt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ekerot, Nils Bengt Folke (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1971
Place of death Stockholm , Sweden