FILE PHOTO: Swedish actor Max Von Sydow looks on during the 2015 Lumiere Grand Lyon film festival in Lyon, France, October 16, 2015. REUTERS/Robert Pratta
PARIS (Reuters) – Max von Sydow, the Swedish actor whose career spanned arthouse dramas, horror movies and Hollywood blockbusters, has died in France aged 90, Agence France Presse reported on Monday, citing his wife.
Born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929, into a family of academics in Lund in southern Sweden, the trained theater actor appeared in more than 120 movies in a dozen different countries, as well as numerous plays and radio dramas.
His best-known roles included the knight Antonius Block, who plays chess with Death in the brooding 1957 fantasy “The Seventh Seal”, the film that helped established his mentor, friend and compatriot Ingmar Bergman as an international director.
Von Sydow’s big Hollywood breakthrough came with the role of Father Merrin in the 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist”. He was working until well into his 80s, appearing in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” which came out in 2015.
Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Andrew Heavens