Happy 80th to Max von Sydow

It's a big day in Sweden: The great Max von Sydow turns 80 today. Most people only vaguely familiar with von Sydow probably expect him to be older, because he's played older characters most of his career. It's astonishing to me that this graceful actor has only received one Oscar nomination, for Pelle the Conquerer. He's been fantastic for 50 years, beginning with his work with Ingmar Bergman. The Seventh Seal is a favorite, but check him out in Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly, and The Virgin Spring, which I just watched about a month ago because it's the same story as The Last House on the Left. He's played Jesus (The Greatest Story Ever Told), he's riffed on Blofeld and Ming the Merciless, and has dressed up as Freud, Eugene O'Neill, popes and cardinals, and Brewmaster Smith in Strange Brew. He's done independent films in a host of languages, including an unbelievable few minutes in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But he will always be remembered as Father Lancaster Merrin in The Exorcist. It's one of my five or ten all-time favorites, in large measure because of von Sydow's terrific, unshaken performance. And though Merrin was a sickly, aged character in the film, von Sydow was only 43 when filming began. And now the power of Christ compels you to watch this classic clip:

Comments

[Brandon M. Sergent]

"Thank you both... and may I say that, together, you make a wonderful person." - Dr. Alexandr Bukhanovsky

I love that line. Citizen X makes me cry every time.

And then of course there's Needful Things.

"This is not my best work, not by a long shot. Oh, sure, a few murders and a couple of rather lovely explosions. I would hardly call it a rousing success, but what the hell? I'll be back. - Leland Gaunt

heheh

Max to the max.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Max is definitely one of the great.

Despite a rather characteristic face and voice, he somehow comes across as different people in most of his roles. That is usually the mark of a truly great character actor, that they can make you belive that they are someone different time and time again.

I too find it difficult to understand why he hasn't had more Oscar recognition - except that the Oscar's aren't an exact science and that many people who deserve one don't get it and vice versa.

Perhaps he is still too strongly associated with Ingmar Bergman, in a sense being eclipsed by that other great Swede.

[Get The Big Picture]

But seriously, how did he not get a Supporting nomination for The Exorcist? That thing was nominated in almost every major category.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Well, I think he's got plenty recognition in the business anyway.

I remember Edward James Olmos bowing and kissing von Sydow's hand at the Oscars many years back.

I don't think he'd bow and kiss Sean Penn's hand, for instance.

But you're right ,von Sydow's performance in The Exorcist was the best one in that movie.

But I stopped counting Oscars many years ago as they kept going to the wrong people.