Bodil Kjer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bodil Valborg Karen Ellen Kjer (born September 2, 1917 in Odense , † February 1, 2003 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish theater and film actress. She was one of the leading actresses in Denmark and appeared in around a hundred theater roles and over 40 film and television productions in her more than six decades-long career.

Life

Bodil Kjer was born in 1917 as the daughter of the Danish manager Ernst Kjer and his German-born wife Elli Harrie. She grew up in her native Odense and attended the theater school of the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Teater , from 1936 to 1938 . There she made her professional stage debut in 1937 with the play Hvo, som forarge . After her training, Kjer worked regularly at the Royal Theater , where the role of Ester in Knud Sønderby's En kvinde er overflødig paved her breakthrough as a theater actress. Thereupon she advanced to the leading character actress in Denmark in the following decades. She played leading roles in classic plays by William Shakespeare ( What You Want , A Midsummer Night's Dream ) or Molière , as well as contemporary subjects. These include the part of Celia Coplestone in TS Eliot's The Cocktail Party and the roles of Stella and Maggie in Tennessee Williams ' End Station Sehnsucht and The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . She also acted in musicals, including the successful production Teenagerlove , which brought it to 180 performances from 1962 to 1966. From 1955 to 1960, Kjer switched to the ensemble of the New Theater (Det Ny Teater), where she worked with the director Peer Gregaard .

Parallel to her work at the theater, Kjer also appeared regularly in Danish feature film productions from the late 1930s. She made her debut in 1937 with an extra role in Jon Iversens Flådens blå matroser . She then worked with such well-known directors as Lau Lauritzen ( En ganske almindelig pige , 1940) or Bodil Ipsen ( En herre i kjole og hvidt , 1942). Her breakthrough as a film actress came in 1947 with Johan Jacobsen's soldiers and Jenny (1947). In the drama, she is seen as the object of desire by Poul Reichhardt , a young saleswoman who plans to evade an impending suicide charge of abortion. The part of Jenny first brought her the Bodil , Denmark's national film award, which was named after her and Bodil Ipsen.

Bodil Kjer's grave in Vedbæk Kirkegård cemetery

Critics attested her comic and tragic stage and film roles of international format, which she played mostly with passion and erotic charisma. Kjer turned down offers from Hollywood in order to continue her theater work in Denmark. She won another Bodil in 1952 for Torben Anton Svendsen's operetta adaptation Mød mig paa Cassiopeia (1951), which was followed by a ten-year break from screen. After that she only worked sporadically for film and television. Another Bodil followed in 1977 for her supporting role in the crime film Strømer . She became known to an international audience through Gabriel Axel's Oscar- winning film Babettes Fest (1987), in which she and Birgitte Federspiel portrayed two aging sisters living in ascetic piety. In 1997 Kjer was awarded the Bodil for her life's work.

Kjer was married several times, including to her fellow actors Olaf Nordgreen and Ebbe Rode . She was seen with Rode on the occasion of her 60th stage anniversary in the play Kærestebreve at the Royal Theater. Two years later, her biography was published under the title Et offentligt fruentimmer: erindringer . In the last years of her life, the Danish actress withdrew from the theater and devoted herself to readings of the works of Karen Blixen and Hans Christian Andersen . In 2003 she died in Copenhagen at the age of 85.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1937: Flådens blå matroser
  • 1938: Blaavand reporter storm
  • 1938: ballets danser
  • 1940: En ganske almindelig pige
  • 1941: Tag til Rønneby kro
  • 1941: Far Skal giftes
  • 1942: Vi kunne has så rart
  • 1942: Aunt Cramer's wills
  • 1942: Søren Søndervold
  • 1942: En herre i kjole og hvidt
  • 1943: Hans onsdagsveninde
  • 1943: Drama på slottet
  • 1943: Det brændende spørgsmål
  • 1944: Otte akkorder
  • 1944: Elly Petersen
  • 1944: To som elsker hinanden
  • 1945: The usynlige hær
  • 1947: Soldiers and Jenny
  • 1949: John and Irene
  • 1950: Din fortid he glemt
  • 1950: Min kone er uskyldig
  • 1951: Mød mig på Cassiopeia
  • 1968: I den grønne skov
  • 1971: Den forsvundne fuldmægtig
  • 1974: Prins Piwi
  • 1976: Hjerter he trumps
  • 1976: Strømer
  • 1978: Lille spejl
  • 1979: Rend mig i traditionerne
  • 1987: Babettes Fest ( Babettes gæstebud )
  • 1996: pacts
  • 2001: To kvinder (TV)

Awards

  • 1948: Bodil as the best leading actress for soldiers and Jenny
  • 1952: Bodil as best leading actress for Mød mig på Cassiopeia
  • 1977: Bodil as Best Supporting Actress for Strømer
  • 1997: Bodil for her life's work

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Profile in the Dansk film database (Danish, accessed March 1, 2009)
  2. ↑ a b c d cf. Henrik Lyding: Skuespilleren Bodil Kjer død at jp.dk (Danish, accessed March 1, 2009)
  3. ↑ a b cf. Ebbe Mørk: Den sidste primadonna . In: Politiken , February 2, 2003, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Kjer, Bodil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kjer, Bodil Valborg Karen Ellen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish actress
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Odense
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 2003
Place of death Copenhagen