Stellan Skarsgård Biography
Summary
"Stellan Skarsgård" (; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor, known internationally for his film roles in "Angels & Demons", "Breaking the Waves", "The Hunt for Red October", "Ronin", "Good Will Hunting", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Exorcist: The Beginning", "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist", "Mamma Mia!" and "W?Z".
Personal life
Skarsgård was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, the son of Gudrun and J. Skarsgård. He moved often in his childhood and he lived, amongst other places, in Totebo, Kalmar, Marielund and Uppsala.
With My Skarsgård (married 1975-2007), he is the father of Alexander Skarsgård and Gustaf Skarsgård, also actors, Sam Skarsgård (born 1982), Bill Skarsgård (born 1990), Eija Skarsgård (born 1992) and Valter Skarsgård (born 1995). Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly named their son Stellan (born 5 August 2003) after him. Skarsgård is an atheist and compares belief in religion to believing in Santa Claus.
He married Megan Everett in January 2009 which was soon followed by their son Ossian's birth in April.
Acting career
Skarsgård started his acting career early. At the age of 20 he already had a great deal of experience in film, TV, and stage. Most of his early roles were in Swedish TV (such as "Bombi Bitt") and movies.
Skarsgård is particularly associated with director Lars von Trier, having starred in three of the Danish auteur's features, including "The Kingdom", "Breaking the Waves", and "Dogville". Aside from these, his best-known Scandinavian work is probably his leading role as the guilt-ridden policeman Jonas Engström in the original "Insomnia". Having acted in many Hollywood roles, he is considered to be the 'Swedish Jean Reno;.
Among his English-language film roles are:
King Theseus who abducted Helen in "Helen of Troy"
A scientist testing a cure for Alzheimer's Disease on sharks in "Deep Blue Sea"
Abolitionist Lewis Tappan in "Amistad"
Russian submarine captain Tupolev in "The Hunt for Red October"
An engineer in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
Gerald Lambeau, an MIT professor of mathematics in "Good Will Hunting"
A young Lankester Merrin in "Exorcist: The Beginning" (and in Paul Schrader's version, "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist")
An East German ex-KGB opportunist and criminal Gregor in "Ronin"
The Saxon warlord Cerdic in "King Arthur",
William 'Bootstrap Bill' Turner in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"
Joe Heiser in "Wind"
Swedish writer Bill Anderson in the film version of Mamma Mia!
He was considered for the role of Oskar Schindler in "Schindler's List". Skarsgård reported that people often mistake him for Liam Neeson, who portrayed Schindler in the film. Skarsgård would in fact replace Neeson in "Exorcist: The Beginning" (2004). He had a guest stint on the HBO TV Series "Entourage" as Verner Vollstedt, the German director of the fictional film "Smokejumpers" who has a bias against the main character Vincent Chase, one of the stars of the film.
Filmography
"This filmography is not full but rather a representative one."
== Awards and nominations ====References====External links==** (Stellan Online (Fan Site)) * (Stellan Skarsgard Biography)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Stellan Skarsgård.
