R.I.P. Max von Sydow: Star of THE EXORCIST Has Passed Away at 90
It’s with heavy hearts that we kick off the week with news of the passing of a horror icon. Max von Sydow, who played Father Merrin in The Exorcist died on March 8th at the age of 90. THR reports:
“It’s 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,” his wife, French documentary filmmaker and producer Catherine von Sydow, said Monday.
Biography:
His work in the movies by Ingmar Bergman (especially The Seventh Seal (1957), that includes the iconic scenes in which he plays chess with Death) made him well-known internationally, and he started to get offers from abroad. His career abroad began with him playing Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Hawaii (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). Since then, his career includes very different kind of characters, like Karl Oskar Nilsson in The Emigrants (1971); Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist (1973); Joubert the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980); the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Never Say Never Again (1983); Liet-Kynes in Dune (1984) the artist Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination; Dr. Peter Ingham in Awakenings (1990); Lamar Burgess in Minority Report (2002) and The Renter in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), which earned him his second Academy Award nomination. (Source)
Trivia:
Is one of the few actors to have played both God (in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)) and the Devil (in Needful Things (1993)). (Source)
All of us here at Dread Central send our sincerest condolences to Max von Sydow’s fans, friends, and family.
Categorized:News
