He was in so many different genres of movies...I first remember him from The Emigrants way back in 1971...of course The Exorcist (1973), Dune (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), all the way up to GOT and Star Wars...
RIP
Wow, I know he had a long life, but still... By sheer coincidence, I just saw The Exorcist and Minority Report two weeks ago, and I was wondering what happened to him. I always loved his name; it sounded very distinguished. It was the type of name where even if you had never seen his work before you'd think, "He must be a very important actor."
shareIt's the "von" 😊
shareThe von Sydows once were aristocrats from Germany, and that is why they have that elegant "von" in their name. There are plenty of other famous von Sydows here in Sweden, out of which one was a prime minister back in 1921. Another member of the family was the speaker of the parliament between 2002 and 2006. But things were not all sunshine and butterflies. For a third relative of Max's murdered his own father and two domestics and his wife back in 1932, which was of course a huge scandal at the time.
shareWhat makes Max von Sydow special is not so much that he was in so many classic movies. (don't get me wrong that DOES help.). But a lot of us have different ideas of what his best most memorable movie was. For my part I vote for "Non ho sonno" (2001)
sharePelle the Conqueror.
Fantastic tour de force movie with Von Sydow at his best. He def. should won Oscar for this performance. I'm not saying because he is dead now, I was saying this my whole life. Way better than great Hoffman, Though, Pelle was from 1987 and Rain Man from 1988 and why the hell they where nominated same year at first place?
lud, while Pelle the Conqueror premiered in Denmark in 1987, it did not open in the US until December, 1988.
According to the Academy's rules, which state that to be considered for the Best Picture Oscar, a film has to play in a Los Angeles County theater for a minimum of seven days with at least three screenings per day. Thus 1988 was when Pelle became eligible for Academy Award consideration.
Almost unmatched in the ability to bring gravatas to a character.