Stellan Skarsgård Biography

STELLAN SKARSGÄRD

Date of Birth: June 13, 1951

A native of Sweden, Stellan Skarsgård became a teen star in 1968 after playing the title role in the TV miniseries Bombi Bitt och jag.

From 1972-88, he was employed at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he starred in such productions as Vita rum (1988), August Strindberg's Ett drömspel (1986) and Mäster Olof (1988).

Skarsgård also appeared in films during this time, most notably in The Simple-Minded Murder (1982) by Hans Alfredson. The performance garnered the actor both a Guldbagge (Sweden’s Oscar) and a Silver Berlin Bear. He portrayed the Skagen-painter Sören Kröyer in Hip hip hurrah! (1987) and the Swedish ambassador Raoul Wallenberg in Good Evening Mr. Wallenberg (1990), both directed by Kjell Grede. In Code Name Coq Rouge (1989) and The Democratic Terrorist (1992), Skarsgård played Jan Guillou's Swedish superagent Carl Hamilton. He also played the lead in the Oscar nominated Oxen (1991) directed by the world-famous cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

Skarsgård made his foray into American film with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). His role as Captain Tupolev in The Hunt for Red October (1990) was supposed to be his biggest part in a Hollywood film, but unfortunately it was edited down. Instead, his breakthrough came with Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996) opposite newcomer Emily Watson. Skarsgård played Jan, a man disabled by an accident, who can no longer be intimate with his wife. He urges her to seek out other partners and to tell him the details.

Following Breaking the Waves, the actor landed several supporting roles in high profile American films such as Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997), Steven Spielberg's Amistad (1997), John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998) and Renny Harlin's, Deep Blue Sea (1999).

In 2000, he had the opportunity to work with von Trier again in the award-winning film Dancer in the Dark. Skarsgård can also be seen in several films like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Melancholia (2011) and The Avengers (2012). In recent years, he starred in the film Nymphomaniac: Volumes I and II (2014), The Railway Man (2014), Thor: Age of Ultron (2015), and Cinderella (2015).

The legendary actor can now be seen in the crime thriller Our Kind of Traitor (2016), the German drama Return to Montauk (2016), and the drama Music, War and Love (2016). He reprised his role in the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) and starred in the 2018 drama Borg vs. McEnroe. In 2019, he starred in the HBO mini TV series Chernobyl, which earned him a Golden Globe award.

Skarsgård, who claims to be frequently mistaken for Liam Neeson, has six children with his first wife, My, a doctor, whom he divorced in 2007 after 32 years of marriage. He married again in January 2009 and his second wife, Megan, gave birth to his seventh child, a baby boy named Ossian, on April 26, 2009.

Filmography:

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
Borg vs. McEnroe (2017)
Music, War and Love (2016)
Return to Montauk (2016)
Our Kind of Traitor (2016)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Cinderella (2015)
Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)
In Order of Disappearance (2014)
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The Physician (2013)
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Romeo & Juliet (2013)
The Railway Man (2013)
The Avengers (2012)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Melancholia (2011)
Thor (2011)
King of Devil's Island (2010)
Moomins and the Comet Chase (2010)
As If I Am Not There (2010)
Frankie & Alice (2010)
A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010)
Metropia (2009)
Boogie Woogie (2009)
Angels & Demons (2009)
Arn: The Kingdom at the End of the Road (2008)
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Arn: The Knight Templar (2007)
The Killing Gene (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Guilty Hearts (2006)
Goya's Ghosts (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Kill Your Darlings (2006)
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
King Arthur (2004)
Dogville (2003)
City of Ghosts (2002)
No Good Deed (2002)
The Glass House (2001)
Taking Sides (2001)
Aberdeen (2000)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Timecode (2000)
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Passion of Mind (2000)
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Ronin (1998)
Savior (1998)
Glasblåsarns barn (1998)
Amistad (1997)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
My Son the Fanatic (1997)
Insomnia (1997)
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Harry och Sonja (1996)
The Hounds of Riga (1995)
Zero Kelvin (1995)
Jönssonligans största kupp (1995)
Sista dansen (1993)
The Slingshot (1993)
Wind (1992)
Den demokratiske terroristen (1992)
Oxen (1991)
Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990)
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The Women on the Roof (1989)
Täcknamn Coq Rouge (1989)
The Perfect Murder (1988)
Friends (1988)
Vargens tid (1988)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
Hip Hip Hurrah! (1987)
Jim & piraterna Blom (1987)
The Serpent's Way (1986)
Peter-No-Tail in America (1985)
Falsk som vatten (1985)
Åke och hans värld (1984)
P & B (1983)
The Simple-Minded Murderer (1982)
Hemåt i natten (1977)
Taboo (1977)
Swedish Sex Games (1975)
Anita: Swedish Nymphet (1973)
Bröllopet (1973)
Fem døgn i august (1973)
Firmafesten (1972)
Strandhugg i somras (1972)