Max Von Sydow has died at the age of 90.
The Swedish-born actor, famous for his collaborations with director Ingmar Bergman, including The Seventh Seal, passed away on Sunday (March 8, 2020), his wife Catherine Brelet, announced.
“It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max Von Sydow on 8 March 2020,” she told Paris Match magazine.
In addition to The Seventh Seal, in which he famously played chess with death, Von Sydow starred in films including The Greatest Story Ever Told, in which he played Jesus Christ, The Exorcist, Flash Gordon, in which he played Ming the Merciless, and Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters.
Von Sydow, who received two Oscar nominations during his career, worked until late in life, appearing in Game of Thrones in 2016, 2011’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination, as well as 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The actor gave up his Swedish citizenship to become a French national in 2002 and was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur in 2012.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his two sons he shared with his first wife Christina Inga Britta Olin, who died in 1998.
