Max von Sydow, actor who played chess against Death, passes away

Max von Sydow, a Swedish-born actor who portrayed a knight playing chess against Death in one of his many roles for Ingmar Bergman, has passed away in France at the age of 90, his wife announced Monday.

Max von Sydow, who acted in more than 100 films and television series in Sweden and the United States, passed away at the age of 90 in southern France, 8 March 2020. © Alberto Pizzoli / AFP

“It’s with a broken heart and infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow on 8 March 2020,” said producer Catherine von Sydow in a statement through the actor’s agent, confirming a report by French gossip magazine Paris Match.

In a career spanning nearly seven decades, von Sydow played in 11 films directed by his Swedish compatriot Ingmar Bergman in the 1950s and 1960s before a long career in Hollywood films.

Among his many honours were two Academy Award nominations and France’s highest civilian distinction, the Legion of Honour.

Born to a wealthy family in the Swedish city of Lund in 1929, von Sydow studied drama and worked with Bergman in theatre productions before the pair went into filmmaking with The Seventh Seal in 1957.

In Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal, actor Max von Sydow, right, portrays Antonius Block, a knight who challenges Death to a chess match. Wikipedia

In it, von Sydow portrays Antonius Block, a disillusioned knight who challenges Death to a chess match, believing he can stay alive as long as the match continues.

Other films with Bergman included Wild Strawberries, Brink of Life, Rabies, The Magician and The Virgin Spring.

Von Sydow portrayed Jesus Christ in his first Hollywood role in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and cemented his international fame as Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist (1971).

He played in more than 100 films and television series including Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters (1986) as well as Star Wars: the Force Awakens in 2015. He received two Academy Award nominations for performances in Pelle the Conqueror (1998) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011).

He lived in Sweden and the United States and had a first marriage to actress Christina Inga Brita Olin from 1951 to 1979.

He lived in the southern French region of Provence after marrying his second wife, French producer and documentary filmmaker Catherine Brelet, in 1997.

Von Sydow became a naturalised French citizen in 2002, relinquishing his Swedish citizenship.