Max von Sydow (born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 - 8 March 2020) was a Swedish actor whose career spanned more than seven decades across European and American film, theatre, and television. He rose to international prominence through eleven films with Ingmar Bergman - above all as the chess-playing knight in The Seventh Seal (1957) - and went on to work with directors including Friedkin, Spielberg, Scorsese, and Lynch. He received two Academy Award nominations and an Emmy nomination, and held French citizenship from 2002.
The Swedish Film Institute organized an online retrospective of six Swedish films by von Sydow on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death.
Max von Sydow died on March 8, 2020 in Provence, France at the age of 90; he was survived by his wife Catherine Brelet and four children.
Von Sydow joined the sixth season of the Game of Thrones series as the Three-Eyed Raven, for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination.
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he played the character Lor San Tekka and thus opened a new trilogy of the saga.
Bergman's masterpiece about a knight returning from the Crusades who encounters Death itself. A philosophical meditation on faith, mortality, and life's meaning.
Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise about a future where crimes are solved before they happen. When the protagonist becomes a target of his own system, he must go on the run and uncover the truth.
A cult camp space opera with Queen on the soundtrack. Colourful, audacious, and tongue-in-cheek spectacle about saving Earth from Emperor Ming.
An Icelandic film about a father confronting tragedy and the biblical commandment against killing. A dark drama inspired by Norse legend, featuring stunning natural cinematography.