Erland Josephson

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BIRTHDAY

June 15, 1923

Stockholm, Sweden

RECENT CREDITS

Saraband (FILM) Jul. 8, 2005

Perlasca (FILM) Apr. 15, 2005

Faithless (FILM) Jan. 26, 2001

Malou moter Ingmar Bergman och Erla... (FILM) Jan. 1, 2001

In the Presence of a Clown (FILM) Jun. 4, 1999

View all Erland Josephson Credits

BIOGRAPHY

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A long-time collaborator with Ingmar Bergman as an actor, scriptwriter and stage director, Josephson successfully branched out into international roles in the 1980s, in such films as Philip Kaufman's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and Istvan Szabo's "Hanussen" (both 1988), and notably as the anguished protagonist of Andrei Tarkovsky's "The Sacrifice" (1986). Erland Josephson's work with Bergman dates back to the late 1930s when they began working together in the theatre. He went on to appear in eight Bergman films, most notably "Cries and Whispers" (1972), in which he was the doctor, "Scenes From a Marriage" (1974), in which he was the cheating husband in what was originally a TV miniseries re-edited for theatrical release, and "Fanny and Alexander" (1983), in which he was a mystical Jew in a small Swedish town. Josephson also followed Bergman as head of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden in 1966, and stayed in the post until 1975. His first screenplay (written with Bergman) was "All These Women" (1964).

Despite his renown in Sweden as a stage and screen actor, Josephson did not venture into international films until 1977 with Liliana Cavani's "Beyond Good and Evil/Al di la del bene e del male". His first English-language effort was "Saving Grace" (1986), in which he was in support of Tom Conti as a Pope out among the people. Josephson was better utilized in "Control", a 1987 HBO made-for-cable film, in which was one of the subjects of a psychological experiment. In "Prospero's Books" (1991), Josephson was Gonzalo in Peter Greenaway's revision of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Josephson also joined Ingrid Thulin in co-directing "One and One", a 1978 short film, and he has written numerous Swedish films, as well as novels, poetry and plays. American audiences got a chance to see him on stage in a 1988 production of "The Cherry Orchard" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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