Max von Sydow

[ad hoc]

Has died, aged 90. You;d be hard pressed to find someone who was in more films (and more diverse films - from Escape to Victory to Bergman) than von Sydow.

[ursus arctos]

He just loved being on screen

Sydow’s most iconic role was in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957), in which he plays chess with Death. He also brought immense presence and gravity to roles such as Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), a doomed priest in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and an intellectually snobbish artist in Woody Allen‘s Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

More recently, he appeared in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and on Game of Thrones as the mystical Three-Eyed Raven.

[Duncan Gardner]

He was good in Hannah. I thought he was much older for some reason?

[Snake Plissken]

He was a bloody awesome Ming the Merciless.


Pronounced Von Soo-dov, apparently.

[jwdd27]

I thought he was a) much older and b) already dead.

RIP again, anyway.

Magnificent in The Exorcist: "the power of Christ compels you!" And of course the Bergman stuff.

I like actors like him, who will do any old shit (Flash Gordon for example) alongside the good stuff. It's only acting, after all.

[Patrick Thistle]

He was great in Minority Report, which was a B-movie on a Blockbuster budget. And of course, as Ming. He was also a villainous property developer / ethnic genocidalist in a weird Australian movie called The Return of Captain Invincible, where he progressively fed various animals to bigger animals before finally eating the largest animal himself.

[ad hoc]

I think I first became aware of him in Death Watch, which was a French film filmed in Glasgow (La Mort en Direct) in which Harvey Keitel had a camera implanted in his eye so he could follow the terminally ill Romy Schneider around and film her death for a live reality TV (the film was from way before reality TV was a thing). Von Sydow played her husband.

[kokamoa]

I think I first became aware of him in Death Watch, which was a French film filmed in Glasgow (La Mort en Direct) in which Harvey Keitel had a camera implanted in his eye so he could follow the terminally ill Romy Schneider around and film her death for a live reality TV (the film was from way before reality TV was a thing). Von Sydow played her husband.

Death Watch is great for the “Isn’t that him off...” game given that he was filmed in Scotland circa 1979/80. Features appearances from William Russell (Ian Chesterton in Doctor Who) as Schneider’s doctor and Robbie Coltrane as a taxi driver.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I still get a tear in my eye at the bit where he stands up and applauds Pele in Escape to Victory.

[Various Artist]

Damn, gutted to hear this even though he obviously had a fine innings. His magnificent Ming the Merciless will live forever, and his tremendous work in the likes of The Exorcist, The Seventh Seal, Minority Report and, yes, Escape to Victory show what diverse things he could pull off with ease.

I'd completely forgotten he was in The Force Awakens – I think he was similarly in an early semi-cameo in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. Something else I'd forgotten was he was the Bond villain no-one ever talks about, Never Say Never Again's Blofeld.


I think one reason several people here have assumed he was older and/or long gone is that he looked about 70 in The Exorcist, and that came out in 1973 – Merrin is meant to be an elderly, retired priest and von Sydow looks the part. In reality, he was just 43 when it was filmed.

It's basically down to his bone structure and – mostly – the remarkable make-up job that aged him about 30 years. The picture below is how he actually looked around the time of filming, compared with his appearance on camera:

[Patrick Thistle]

Ooh, just remembered he was also in the Sylvester Sallone version of Judge Dredd, as the old judge retiring to the Cursed Earth.

[Hot Pepsi]

I'm surprised he was only 90. I would have guessed 100, at least.

Certainly very prolific and, to be honest, not very picky, but he always elevated everything he was in.

I think he played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told which I saw as a kid in the Millheim Theater (and old theater that showed a random assortment of stuff) and that set my idea for what those stories were about for years. I also recall him in Flash Gordon, of course, but the first time I remember being old enough to know his name was his role as the Brewmaster in Strange Brew, which was a massive hit among everyone I knew.

[treibeis]

I thought he was rubbish. My Swedish in-laws think he was great, but couldn't name you one film he was in. His being Swedish, for my Swedish in-laws, was enough.

[ursus arctos]

Just because the man never played the guy who ran a diner or a long distance trucker

Harsh

[Duncan Gardner]

I thought he was rubbish. My Swedish in-laws think he was great, but couldn't name you one film he was in. His being Swedish, for my Swedish in-laws, was enough.

That's like me with Game of Thrones or Seamus Heaney

[Various Artist]

I'm surprised he was only 90. I would have guessed 100, at least.

Certainly very prolific and, to be honest, not very picky, but he always elevated everything he was in.

I think he played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told which I saw as a kid in the Millheim Theater (and old theater that showed a random assortment of stuff) and that set my idea for what those stories were about for years. I also recall him in Flash Gordon, of course, but the first time I remember being old enough to know his name was his role as the Brewmaster in Strange Brew, which was a massive hit among everyone I knew.

You might like this, HP:

https://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith/status/1237001287297712128

[treibeis]

Just because the man never played the guy who ran a diner or a long distance trucker

Harsh

Yes, well, if he was as good as everybody says, then maybe he should have, shouldn't he now?

[tee rex]

Ticker on local breakfast TV: "Game of Thrones actor Max Von Sydow dies ..."

After reading that, he might have wanted to.

[Benjm]

Yes, well, if he was as good as everybody says, then maybe he should have, shouldn't he now?

He wasn't in Import Export either, which seems a telling point.

[jwdd27]

"Game of Thrones actor..." is becoming the new "Harry Potter actor..." when elderly actors die.

Because it's all about getting people to click a link thinking that Daniel Radcliffe or erm... Emilia Clarke, or some younger person has pegged it.

And also because young people are generally thick and uncultured.

[Patrick Thistle]

Or its the most recent thing they were in, or the franchise they are most famous for.

Like, who actually has watched The Seventh Seal?

[ursus arctos]

*raises paw*

I bet FIGS has too

[delicatemoth]

There are a few actors who've been in more than one of my favourite films, but those films are usually similar-ish, or by the same director. I'm pretty sure Max is the only one who was in two films as different and great as The Seventh Seal and Flash Gordon.

Patrick, The Seventh Seal is absolutely fucking beautiful. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

[Benjm]

I've seen six of his eleven films with Ingmar Bergman. I bought the massive Bergman Collection box set issued by Tartan in a sale a few years ago. It is character building.

Songwriter Allee Willis died recently and the headlines mostly described her as 'Friends songwriter' which wasn't necessarily the all-time career high for the co-writer of September and Boogie Wonderland among many others.

[Hot Pepsi]

I’ve never seen The Seventh Seal, but I would have picked that as signature film. That or Strange Brew.