His wife, Catherine von Sydow, confirmed the death in associate degree emailed statement. No cause was given. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet same he died in Provence, France.
Widely hailed in concert of the best actors of his generation, Mr. von Sydow became associate degree elder popular culture star in his later years, showing in a very “Star Wars” show in 2015 likewise as within the sixth season of the HBO fantasy-adventure series “Game of Thrones.”He even season his deep, wealthy voice to “The Simpsons.”
By then he had become a familiarly austere presence in common movies like William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist,” Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” and, additional recently, statesman Schnabel’s “The submersible and therefore the Butterfly.”
But to film lovers the planet over he was most enduringly related to Bergman.
If ever associate degree actor was born to inhabit the planet consistent with Bergman, it was Mr. von Sydow. Angular and lanky at 6-foot-3, possessing a skeletal face and hooded, icy blue eyes, he not solely radiated power however additionally registered a deep sense of Nordic anxiety, serving to to allow flesh to Bergman’s usually bleak however hopeful and generally comic vision of the human condition in classics like “The Seventh Seal” and “The Virgin Spring.”
In “The Seventh Seal” (1958), Mr. von Sydow contend Anthony Block, a burly medieval knight WHO returns from the Crusades to his plague-ravaged mother country solely to encounter the strict, phantasmal pale, black-hooded figure of Death, contend by Bengt Ekerot. To foreclose the inevitable, Block challenges Death to a game of chess, and within the long intervals between moves he searches the country for a few shred of human goodness.
The two grim figures round-backed over a checkerboard {in a|during a|in associate degree exceedingly|in a very} desolate north-country landscape created for an haunting medium image, that has been each imitated and parodied. however sustained Hollywood high status eluded adult male. von Sydow, despite his promising introduction to a good audience within the lead role of martyr Stevens’s biblical epic “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” discharged in 1965.
Though that show clothed to be but a blockbuster, Mr. von Sydow’s performance as Redeemer was adequate to bring a flood of offers his manner. Still, he usually found himself typecast as a stereotyped human, due to his imposing physique, robust options and Scandinavian accent.
“I would like I might have a wider selection of roles in yank productions,” he told The ny Times in 1983, “the reasonably roles i buy in Europe.” sadly, he said, yank film producers “only give you actual copies of roles you with success performed before.”