Per Oscarsson
Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson (born January 28, 1927 in Stockholm , † December 31, 2010 near Skara ) was a Swedish actor , director and screenwriter . Through his theater work and his participation in over 130 film and television productions, he was one of the most respected actors in Scandinavia . For Henning Carlsen's feature film Hunger (1966) he received the Acting Award at the Cannes International Film Festival .
Life
Acting training and first film roles
Per Oscarsson was born in 1927 as the son of the architect Ingmar Einar Oscarsson and his wife Theresia (birth name Kueppers). After a joyless childhood, the imaginative Oscarsson decided to take up the acting profession in high school and received lessons from the theater director and actor Gösta Terserus . Although his mother was against a career as an actor, he forged her signature in 1944 in order to find admission to the Dramatens elevskola , the drama school of the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm. In 1947 he finished his training at the Dramatens elevskola , where Greta Garbo and Alf Sjöberg had also studied, and celebrated his breakthrough in 1948 with a role in Stig Dagerman's play Skuggan av Mart . After several years at the Royal Dramatic Theater, he moved to the Gothenburg Stadsteater in 1953 , where he worked until 1959. Here Oscarsson shone above all in classic pieces such as the title role in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1953) or As You Like It (1957). He later appeared in a production in Paris with his widely acclaimed Hamlet . But he was also seen in more modern fabrics, such as Armand Duval in Alexandre Dumas ' The Lady of the Camellias (1954) and as Orin in Eugene O'Neill's contemporary drama Mourning Elektra (1956). In the early 1960s Oscarsson was also active as a writer and published the short story Nattens färger (1960), with which he processed his fear and shyness about his theater activity, as well as a play with Avslöjandet (1961). In 1964 he moved to the ensemble of the Stockholm Riksteater. Due to his stage fright, the Swede ended his theater career in the mid-1970s before returning to the stage in Gothenburg in 1989 with Arthur Miller's death of a traveling salesman.
In the mid-1940s, Per Oscarsson began appearing in film and television productions parallel to his theater career and this was followed by small roles in the dramas Örnungar (1944) and Den allvarsamma leken (1945) by Ivar Johansson and Rune Carlsten, respectively . The 1.80 m tall actor was first officially mentioned in Gustaf Edgren's comedy Kristin kommenderar , in which he played alongside Gunnar Björnstrand . As a result, Oscarsson was seen regularly in Swedish cinema and later on television. This was followed, among other things, by the Lofoten fishing drama Son of the Sea (1949) with Ingrid Thulin , Hazards of Love (1951), in which director Gösta Werner tried to explain venereal diseases like a feature film, and Karin Mansdotter (1954), the biography of the simple soldier's daughter Karin Månsdotter (played by Ulla Jacobsson ), who became the lover and wife of King Erik XIV of Sweden in the 16th century .
Breakthrough with "Hunger"
In the 1960s Oscarsson worked repeatedly with Arne Mattsson ( Ljuvlig är sommarnatten , 1961; Biljett till paradiset , 1962; Vaxdockan , 1962; Det är hos mig han har varit , 1963) and Jan Troell ( Here you have your life , 1966; Raus are you , 1968), but it was the cooperation with the Dane Henning Carlsen that made him known to an international audience. In 1966 Oscarsson appeared in Carlsen's drama Hunger , in which he can be seen as the young writer Pontus, who lives penniless in his hometown Oslo around 1890 and maintains a fleeting relationship with the beautiful Ylajali (played by Gunnel Lindblom ). The film adaptation of a novel by Knut Hamsun celebrated its premiere in May 1966 the 19th International Film Festival of Cannes , where Oscarsson was highly praised by the critics and the Best Actor award against such renowned fellow actors such as the later Oscar -nominated Michael Caine ( lets the seducer beautiful greetings ) or Orson Welles ( Falstaff ). A year later, the portrait of Pontus was honored with the Swedish film award Guldbagge and the Danish Bodil , and the performance of the almost 40-year-old also attracted attention in the United States , where Hunger was shown in cinemas two years later. The New York Times recognized the Pontus as "brilliantly played" and in 1969 won Oscarsson be the first actor of a non-English speaking film the price of the National Society of Film Critics as Best Actor .
After the success of Hunger , Per Oscarsson was often committed to the role of the highly sensitive, self-tormenting outsider with unusual idiosyncrasies, and engagements in foreign film productions followed, including Anthony Mann's spy film The Death Dance of a Killer (1968) or Carlos Saura's literary adaptation Cave of Memories (1969 ), in which Geraldine Chaplin , Tom Courtenay , Laurence Harvey or Mia Farrow were his film partners. In 1972 Oscarsson played the supporting role of Pastor Törner in Jan Troell's multiple Oscar-nominated emigrant epic Das neue Land with Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in the lead roles, which was followed in 1973 by a part in the German adventure film Traumstadt by Johannes Schaaf . The Swede is also remembered by a broad European cinema audience through the Astrid Lindgren film adaptation of Ronja the robber's daughter (1984), in which he embodies the robber captain Borka. Oscarsson remained active as a film actor for the next three decades and has now appeared in over 130 film and television productions. Continuing popularity brought him the role of police chief Gustav Jörgenson in the crime series Polisen i Strömstad , which was broadcast from 1982 to 1996 by the public television broadcaster SVT . Most recently he took on the role of Holger Palmgren in the Stieg-Larsson films Damnation and Forgiveness (both 2009).
Oscarsson's career was marked by numerous crises and breakdowns. In the late 1940s, the actor joined Jehovah's Witnesses after previously expressing an interest in the Rosicrucian secret society . 1966 Oscarsson caused a scandal when it is in the popular Swedish TV show Hylands hörna of Lennart Hyland stripped to his underpants. He also worked as a lay preacher and temporarily retired as a chicken farmer in the 1970s. In addition to working as an actor in the theater and in film, Per Oscarsson also appeared as a director and screenwriter on the feature film Ebon Lundin (1973) and the documentary Sverige åt svenskarna (1980), in which he played the leading roles and she also played his own company produced film leagues .
Private life
Per Oscarsson was married several times. In 1960 he married Baerbel Kraemer and entered into another marriage with his colleague Gerd Hegnell. Oscarsson's last wife was the actress Kia Östling. He lived with her in a secluded house near Skara . On the night of December 31, 2010, the house burned down to the ground. The 83-year-old Oscarsson and the 67-year-old Östling were killed. The actor was preparing his autobiography at that time, which was destroyed in the fire.
Oscarsson was the father of a son and two daughters. His son Boman Oscarsson, born in 1960, was also an actor.
Filmography (selection)
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Awards
- 1967: Best Actor for Hunger
- 1967: Best Actor for Hunger
Cannes International Film Festival
- 1966 : Best Actor for Hunger
Festival Internacional de Cinema do Porto
- 1983: nominated in the Best Film category for Sverige åt svenskarna
National Society of Film Critics
- 1969: Best Actor for Hunger
- 2004: nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for Manden bag døren
Web links
- Per Oscarsson in the database of the Svenska Filminstitutet (English / Swedish)
- Per Oscarsson in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g cf. Biography at sfi.se (Swedish; accessed June 27, 2009)
- ↑ a b c cf. Per Oscarsson . In: Contemporary Theater, Film and Television, Volume 40. Gale Group, 2002 (accessed via Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich .: Gale, 2009)
- ↑ cf. Crowther, Bosley: Two Tours de Force: 'The War Game' Lists Catalog of Horrors . In: New York Times, September 14, 1968
- ↑ a b c cf. Biography in Lexicon of International Films 2000/2001 (CD-ROM)
- ↑ cf. Ekelund, Martin: Memoarernaborta i elden at aftonbladet.se, January 2, 2011
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oscarsson, Per |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Oscarsson, Per Oscar Heinrich (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 28, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stockholm |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 31, 2010 |
| Place of death | at Skara |