Max von Sydow, the prolific actor who appeared in Ingmar Bergman classics, Flash Gordon, and Game Of Thrones, has died. Deadline reports that von Sydow died on Sunday at the age of 90.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow, on March 8, 2020,” reads a statement from his widow, Catherine von Sydow.
Born in Sweden in 1929, von Sydow is known to many for his chess game with Death in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Bergman was a mentor to the actor, who met the director when he moved to Malmö in 1955. There, he acted in Bergman productions at the Malmö Municipal Theatre before appearing in films like 1957's Wild Strawberries and 1960's The Virgin Spring. We were especially fond of von Sydow’s work in 1958's The Magician: “More than an hour passes before Max von Sydow, the eponymous conjurer, even speaks a word, but his eyes—and Gunnar Fischer’s exquisite black-and-white cinematography—communicate all that is necessary about a man who works to sustain a practiced air of mystery.”
U.S. audiences will also recognize von Sydow, as he starred in a wide variety of American comedies, dramas, and genre pieces, most notably as the doomed Father Merrin in The Exorcist. But he also worked with David Lynch (Dune), Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), Penny Marshall (Awakenings), Woody Allen (Hannah And Her Sisters), and Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island), and was nominated for Oscars for his turns in 1987's Pelle The Conquerer and 2011's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.
But, for as refined as von Sydow was as an actor, he was never above appearing in fare many might consider lowbrow. There was his committed turn as the villainous Brewmeister Smith in Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas’ hilarious Strange Brew, for instance, as well as his sumptuous performances in VHS relics like Judge Dredd and Needful Things, in which he played Stephen King’s evil shop owner Leland Gaunt.
In recent years, von Sydow appeared in three of Hollywood’s biggest franchises, first as Lor San Tekka in 2013's The Force Awakens, then as a voice on a 2014 episode of The Simpsons, and then as Bran’s Three-Eyed Raven in Game Of Thrones, for which he would receive an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Actor. From our review of von Sydow’s Simpsons episode: “Von Sydow is exactly the sort of guest star you get when you want your episode of television to assume a resonance it may not have earned otherwise. I love Max, and, as he’s proved in roles from Ming the Merciless to Brewmeister Smith, Ingmar Bergman’s favorite actor can deliver a silly line with the lightest touch and greatest conviction in the world.”
His final role will be in Nicholas Dimitropoulos’ Echoes Of The Past, which is currently in post-production.
126 Comments
Who will do 90% of the RPG game trailers now? Skyrim will miss you sir and so will I.Gå med Gud vän..
I hear Max died because he took an arrow to the knee
Damn. I honestly assumed he was functionally immortal.I’ll take this space to praise him in Intacto, a film I wish more people saw. His utterly magnetic holocaust-survival monologue scene is one for the ages.
“I honestly assumed he was functionally immortal.”Yup!
As long as his movies exist, he is.
When we came out of The Force Awakens, the first words out of my brother’s mouth were “How *old* is Max von Sydow?!?” I had had the same reaction upon seeing him. We eventually agreed that it was due to The Excorist. He had been so effective playing an old man forty years earlier that our brains were calculating that he was well into his 120s
It was defineteley The Exorcist that gave everyone that impression. Von Sydow and Brando played older men in such iconic roles around the same time that it was disconcerting to see them playing their real age just a couple of years later.
When Max von Sydow’s casting for The Force Awakens was announced, I was so excited, hoping he’d be playing a First Order admiral or something, a carry-over from the original trilogy’s Empire. Then, while von Sydow’s performance was no less grand, his brief and marginalized role was anything but.
Where is the praise for his sinister turn as the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975)?
Perhaps my favorite spy movie of all time and MVS was perfect in it.
By bizarre coincidence I watched that just the other night. Didn’t quite hold up, but Von Sydow’s role was one of the best parts of it.
You mean the sinister, but Nothing Personal, assassin in Three Days of the Condor? I seem to vaguely remember him complimenting Redford at the end for his ability to not get killed, and suggesting being an assassin might be a good career move for him….
Yes. At the end of the film, he reveals an almost paternalistic attitude toward Redford. However, I think that he suggests relocating to Europe, not becoming a hit man.
Yeah, I think you’re right, Kent Allard. I saw Three Days of the Condor decades ago in an all-night grindhouse (something I did a lot in my Twenties), and all that sticks in my mind was Faye Dunaway bound&gagged to a radiator by a Very Paranoid Redford, and later having sex with her captor, then becoming his lover/partner! Don’t mean to kink-shame here, but that played a lot less squicky in the Seventies than it would now…Everything else I remember is usually triggered by seeing something similar in a different movie or television show. RUBICON, the short-lived AMC series, had so many 3DoC shout-outs in it the series may as well have been a remake…
“Where is the praise for his sinister turn as the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975)?”Ironically, I think he was great because it wasn’t a sinister turn. To me, he seemed an accomplished professional who saw his job the same way an accountant would see reviewing the books of a company going into bankruptcy.
I agree with your assessment, but those elements of his personality are revealed at the end of the film. This gave the character unexpected depth, after he initially seemed to be a one-dimensional killer.
Absolutely agree on both counts. He seemed so damn ageless, it never occurred to me that he might actually be getting ‘old’.Intacto is indeed a wierd and wonderful gem and his presence (and monologue) gave the ending so much more of a kick.
Probably because he played a lot of aged roles throughout the 70’s and 80’s.
“Intacto” was one of the first foreign films I found and watched by myself as a teenager stepping into the world of too many movies. I always was mesmerized by Von Sydow’s performance, and it made me excited to keep renting new things and step further outside my American teenager in the early 2000s bubble.
I came here to see if Intacto was mentioned and it is as you say a film worth praising.
He turned “old” at around 30, and then stayed that way for decades. He was only 44 when he played the “old” priest in The Exorcist.
Wow. A link to cinematic history has gone. RIP.
Can The Simpson’s really be called one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises in 2014? I gotta give praise to the makeup effects in The Exorcist because I genuinely thought he was around 70 or so at the time.
Father Merrin was not exactly a great part, but what Von Sydow brought to it (as well as the makeup) went a long way to making The Exorcist so iconic
He may have had many wonderful roles. But to me, he will always be Brewmeister Smith.
Honestly, that’s my first recollection of him as well. But once I got older and started watching ‘art’ films I was stunned at how expressive he was, and just how insanely talented. Time to hoist a Molson up for him. RIP
It’s a tribute to his skill that he can be memorable for something as throwaway as villain role in a comedy about beer.
100%. I can’t think of him without immediately thinking, “What the stink are they doing in there?”
Imma find a stubby bottle and pour one out for him.
“I could crush your head… like a nut… but I won’t. Because I need you.”
He will be Ming to me, but loved him in Strange Brew too.
My favorite idiotic joke in Strange Brew is his character Brewmeister Smith having his name shortened (I think on his office door) to “B.M. Smith”
I was really hoping someone would bring up that role. Such a under rated movie and he was amazing in it.
LEVEL FIVE!!
I caught Needful Things on TV the other day, and it was predictably pretty bad (I liked the book, though). But von Sydow is so good in it – by turns charming, debonair, terrifying and brutish. I always appreciate when an actor takes a role in a crummy movie they could have easily phoned in and actually turns in a great effort – it makes me feel respected as an audience member.
I absolutely adore Shutter Island, and would make a case to rank it as one of Scorsese’s best and most underrated. It’s a ridiculous B-movie horror, but made by such brilliant people and so so many phenomenal actors. It becomes something so captivating as it recognizes it’s own silliness and simultaneously treats it as something classy.Von Sydow was particularly memorable. He plays such a calm friendly doctor who thinks nothing of casually suggesting physically restraining psychiatric patients at all times and dispensing lobotomy treatments wherever possible. The twist of the movie makes his performance even better. Von Sydow’s character is amused by the absurdity he sees and his abilities as an actor to elevate material really made that work.
I think it’s one of Scorsese’s best too. Have you read the book? (Don’t want to, well not exactly spoil, the ending).
We call that the “Frank Langella/Masters of the Universe” touch.
Did you see his interview on the Toys that Made Us episode on He-Man? It was awesome, he talked about how seriously he took it.
Why were they asking him about He Man?
To be clear, it was Langella, not Von Sydow. Langella played Skeletor in He-Man.
That’s what I thought, but I apparently missed the part where he was injected into the conversation the first time around.
Another reason I really need to watch that show. I assume there’s an arc on Ninja Turtles action figures?
If you grew up in the 80s it’s must-see TV. And yup, the Turtles get an episode.
Needfull Things was one of those Stephen King books with a great build-up, but he just couldn’t figure out how to end it. So, it’s no surprise that the movie wasn’t much better. But damn, von Sydow was perfect in that film!
“But he just couldn’t figure out how to end it.” Soooooo… every Stephen King book?
Shoutout also to Dreamscape, a pretty terrible film elevated by Sydow and Plummer.Jesus, Plummer’s 90 too. Can someone check in on him?
I’d venture that Von Sydow makes anything more watchable, but Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close was still awful.
Having read the novel I’d expect you’re right
It wasn’t THAT bad. There’s some legit good stuff in there, plus Luther from the Warriors!
Oh yeah, the supporting cast is legitimately great. The lead actors, the effects, and the rapey seduction dream much less so.
I always thought Dennis Quaid looked…I dunno, too handsome and old for the part for some reason. Still, it’s a great premise and the effects for the time were decent. Plus Norm!
Norm? If there’s an uncredited Norm Macdonald cameo in there that I’ve overlooked for years then this is a silver lining to the news…
That would be awesome but…
Hey Alex, have a heart!
I watched a Rifftrax version of that film on Pluto TV.
He’s being digitally inserted into Seven as John Doe. It takes time.
I’ve watched several Bergman movies for the first time over the last few years and I’m always excited to see Von Sydow pop up. The Magician is one of the few of their collaborations that I haven’t seen yet, so I’ll rectify that shortly. He lived a good, long life, but it’s a shame he won’t be around to add gravitas to fantasy and sci-fi projects any longer.
If you haven’t seen it yet, “The Passion of Anna” might be his best performance in a Bergman movie. It isn’t as widely discussed as some of their earlier hits, but it is one of the most penetrating studies of human relationships that I’ve seen on screen.
Thanks! That is one of the other ones I’ve missed. The other two are Shame, which has been on my watchlist for a while, and The Touch. Hopefully, I’ll be able to knock them all out within the next few weeks. They’re all on The Criterion Channel.
Shame is one of my five top Bergman films.I can’t narrow it below five.
good call! thanks for the reminder.
He’s not the lead in the movie, but to see him playing a very different type of role, check out Winter Light. Might be my favorite Bergman film.
Saw that one. I liked it, but didn’t love it.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an often unbearable movie, but good Lord Von Sydow was so great in it. He never speaks a single word, but his whole performance radiates such warmth, pain, fear and such passion, and he does it all with his face.
I won’t in good decency recommend anyone watch that movie, but just know his Academy award nomination was well deserved.
I’ll take your word for it. The trailers alone were unbearably awful. Best Picture nominated my ASS! Sorry Max.
We should all skoal tonight in his memory, while all being aware of how we will never look as badass as he did while skoal-ing:http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fpage_id=432.html
skål!
I had the pleasure of meeting Max Von Sydow at a film festival. He had the habit of, if at somewhere like Cannes or Berlin where he was promoting something, spending his spare time seeing other films, and you would often see him at screenings of all sorts of things. He was sitting beside me during a pretty terrible German comedy and we had a chat about it afterwards. The following day, at a pretty stodgy Italian drama, he was sitting behind me, and we talked about the pic afterwards as well. A charming, intelligent man and a terrific actor. Hopefully this will urge people to watch some of his other work, not just The Exorcist, Flash Gordon and The Seventh Seal.
I stumbled across “Flash Gordon” this Saturday and actually thought, “God, this guy is gonna live forever.” A great, great actor with a magnetic screen presence. He might be the last great one we had left. Ouch.
Jinx!
“He might be the last great one we had left.”I think you might be underestimating another great thespian who is still with us.You guessed it, Frank Stallone!
Not while his non union counterpart Christopher Plumber still lives.
Ouch!I’m sure you aren’t meaning the mistake as a dumbass joke, but…Plummer! PLUMMER!!And he IS great, but no von Sydow.
Oh wow did my phone autocorrect that. Oh god. I mean no disrespect to Christopher Plummer, even if he is an raging oldman whenever Julie Andrews is mentioned.
No problem, of course. And an excellent excuse, given nearly all of us have been similarly victimized.
Oh I’m not kidding this Samsung phone as a horribly picky autocorrect that I often just miss. It suck. To quote Plummer, I’d rather cut my wrists.
Ah man, I really feel this one. What an incredible on-screen presence he was, just brought such gravitas and charisma to every appearance. RIP and thanks for the wonderful work you left us.
Look, I liked Strange Brew as well as everyone else, but everyone should watch Virgin Spring at least once (and there’s probably not many who could take it more than once). His performance is absolutely chilling.
Can confirm!
After watching Last House on the Left for a movie review, I watched Virgin Spring. Yes, comparing Wes Craven vs Bergman is like Yahoo Serious in a fight with Bruce Lee – but boy, talk about night and day. Last House is good, Virgin Spring is a goddamned milestone for the ages.
Yep.
Damn, first Kirk Douglas now Max Von Sydow. People please protect Dick Van Dyke, I don’t want all the immortal old men to die.
“Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror.” -Ming, “Flash Gordon”
For the record, The Force Awakens came out in 2015, not 2013.Max was such a beloved actor in our house that my dad and I would just shout “Max!” whenever he popped up. There are other Maxes, but he’s the one true Max.
*Max Schreck, still alive because he’s actually a vampire, punches through straw boater*
Well, the man was 80 for 50 years, I guess he had to go some time. RIP.
My favorite line delivery of all time is Max von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters:“If Jesus came back and saw what’s going on in his name, he’d never stop throwing up”
I can’t for the life of me figure out why he was cast for such a small role in The Force Awakens other than, “we need a fucking ACTOR to nail this opening scene of our new trilogy.”I guess they succeeded.
When I first watched E7, my first thought was “Wait – is that freakin’ Von Sydow? And he’s not playing The Bad Guy? What the fuck, movie!”
While I enjoy Andy Serkis, von Sydow could have made a very intimidating Snoke.
He was so wasted in Game of Thrones like alot of great were on the show.
Max von Sydow, is the best part of the entire new trilogy, and that says a lot about both.To a great actor that really did it all. R.I.P.
I know. If you had someone that good, make him a major character. Not a two line throwaway. That is like having Christopher Lee as the first chancellor in phantom menace.
Or Terence Stamp…
Oh my god I forgot that was Terence Stamp. He was as wasted as Max.
I heard a rumour (so take with the requisite grains of salt) that it was meant to be Wedge but Denis Lawson was like “Thanks but no.”
I know they wanted a Wedge Antilles cameo somewhere in that movie.Then we get one in Rise, except I’m pretty sure he was sitting in a gunner’s position on some ship, not in a fighter cockpit, which is kind of like… like having serious thespian Max von Sydow speak three or four lines then get killed.
“So, Max, the role is-”“Yes, yes, you need someone to come into the opening scene of your movie and shit gravitas so people take it seriously. This isn’t my first rodeo, boy.”
Man, I hope the phrase “shits gravitas” ends up in my obit somehow.
In the 60’s Hollywood brought Sydow over for a couple big movies that didn’t do well: Hawaii, Greatest Story Ever Told. There was a time when Hollywood actively promoted foreign-born talent as major stars. Doesn’t seem to happen that much any more. Of course you have to have the luck of being in a hit to secure the career…If you know the theme music (by Elmer Bernstein) to Hawaii, you are welcome to sing it to my lyrics:We’re in Hawaii
Oh me oh my-eIn HawaiiYou’ll get a leiYou’re welcome.
A true legend has left us. He will be missed. AND HE IS VIGO!!
He returns to the castle of pain on a throne of skulls in the season of evil.
Checkmate (*sigh*)
I still recall von Sydow’s iconic line reading from a Woody Allen film ‘If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name he wouldn’t stop throwing up’.
He was great in Dreamscape. Both Max von Sydow and Christopher Plummer? Why you are just one, Christopher Lee, away from a trifecta of awesome. Dennis Quaid is at maximum smirk level, Kate Capshaw is surprisingly sexy and you even have George Wendt in a cameo of sorts.
A great actor has stepped on the rainbow, after a life well lived.Go forth proudly into your next plane of existence, Max von Sydow.
My favorite role of his was an obscure one: a psychiatrist who profiled and once caught eventually used his report to break down the Soviet Union’s most prolific serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, in 1995’s Citizen X.Unlike the leads, his was a composite character of several real world ones, which gave enough leeway to result in one of the the best zingers I’ve ever seen in a screenplay. When addressing the characters of Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland – who have given him problems right and left for years – “May I say, together, you make a wonderful person.”Don’t think anyone else in that role could have played the reserved and detached persona as well. What a great career.
Good movie. Haven’t seen that one in ages.
1995’s Citizen X.I just rewatched this about a month ago. I had completely forgotten that von Sydow was in the film (too focused on Stephen Rhea) and remember doing a bit of “whaaaah?” when Von Sydow came on screen—and you are so right—he’s great in the role.I teach horror film and regularly show The Exorcist, and a few years ago had a student tell me that he never realized how poignant and powerful the tiny gesture of cleaning one’s glasses could be, referring to von Sydow.
Wait he was in a movie about the Russian cannibal serial killer that inspired Hannibal Rising? How am I learning this now???
A lot of the HBO movies of the 90s and early 00s were extremely difficult to find until pretty recently. If you missed it in the first year or two it’s entirely possible you’d never see them, let alone have heard of them.Fortunately, it looks like it’s now on Prime, so you’re good.
I’m watching this baby right now. Thanks.
The Force Awakens was 2015….just thought I’d correct that lol
Love his highbrow stuff, but come on, who else could have made getting stabbed by a spaceship seem like some sort of a turn-on?
“You…could have…used…luuuuube!”
Seriously, the man was a genius, and it’s wonderful that he didn’t just save that genius for snobs.
His Ming is pretty much as good as Charles Middleton’s and that’s not faint praise.
It’s the gradualness of it I like. “Oh God this is … actually … hmmmm. Well hello, new but sadly one-off fetish.”
Dude, his bit as King Osric in “Conan the Barbarian” was understated brilliance.
I am a little disappointed that the A.V. Club didn’t headline this obit “Van Sydow Loses Final Game of Chess.” A man can dream… a man can dream.That being said, Van Sydow is one of those rare actors who was always worth watching even in movies that weren’t that good. But when given a chance, he was amazing. We are truly seeing the end of a great generation of movie actors.
My favorite story about Max was on the set of Hawaii. Richard Harris and Julie Andrews did not get along. He would show up drunk and mock Andrews. Apparently they had it and nearly got into a fight but Max jumped in the middle and managed to calm both of them down. What a legend. I miss him already.
Til…..that Jared Harris,of Chernobyl fame, is the son of Richard Harris
Dont forget Lane from Mad Men. I didn’t know that was his son. I liked Richard Harris as an actor but he was kinda a mess.
Thank you, Max!Very, very much.For doing everything and anything an actor can do – wonderfully!
I think this reporting is premature. I’m waiting for the final results of the chess game.
The brilliant Bill Sienkiewicz (a comic artist, but certainly not limited to that channel) created this wonderful piece of tribute artwork:
Wait, how did he travel to the future to steal the “board games with death” idea from Excellent Adventure and then go back in time to film it??? Oh yeah, the phone booth. Fuckin’ time travel.