Max Von Sydow

 
Quote: [on how he wants people to perceive him] I want people to think, "Maybe there is something more there." I want to be a mystery.

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Max von Sydow was a Swedish actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television series in multiple languages.

Capable in roles ranging from stolid, contemplative protagonists to sardonic artists and menacing, often gleeful villains, von Sydow was best known for playing the 14th-century knight Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, which features iconic scenes of his character challenging Death to a game of chess.

He appeared in a total of 11 films directed by Bergman, among which were The Virgin Spring and Through a Glass Darkly, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Von Sydow made his American film debut as Jesus Christ in George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told, and had major parts in the title role in William Friedkin's The Exorcist.

He later appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and in HBO's Game of Thrones as the Three-eyed Raven, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

He received the Royal Foundation of Sweden's Cultural Award in 1954, was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2005 and was named a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 17 October 2012.