Max Von Sydow: The Exorcist and The Seventh Seal actor dies aged 90

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51803195



His family announced "with a broken heart and infinite sadness" that the Swedish-born actor died on Sunday.

Von Sydow's other film credits included Hannah and Her Sisters, The Seventh Seal and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

He was nominated for two Oscars during his career - including best actor in 1988 for Pelle the Conqueror.

/snip

[tblue37]

1. Also "The Immigrants" & "Three Days of the Condor," -- excellent films. nt

[John1956PA]

3. "Condor" is among my favorite films of his. Here is an essay about his character's insights:

From Abigail Cheever's 2018 essay at http://post45.org/2018/11/unpredictable-three-days-of-the-condor-information-theory-and-the-remaking-of-professional-ideology/ :

Unpredictable: Three Days of the Condor, Information Theory, and The Remaking of Professional Ideology

A third of the way through Sydney Pollack's spy thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975), the freelance assassin Joubert (Max von Sydow) explains to his client his difficulty in locating the CIA researcher codenamed Condor (Robert Redford), who went on the run after Joubert murdered his entire unit in an early moment of the film. "Condor is an amateur," Joubert explains, "He's lost, unpredictable, perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional, not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost. He doesn't know what to do."1 Against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, this scene establishes the first in a series of distinctions between "professionals" like Joubert and "amateurs" like Condor — a distinction that here hinges primarily on differences in knowledge but will expand to include several other qualities. The amateur, according to Joubert, is "lost" in the world of covert operations and "doesn't know what to do." But this ignorance brings with it unexpected benefits.

. . .

[RANDYWILDMAN]

2. RIP Ming the merciless

90 is a long life though

[Sneederbunk]

4. A truly great actor.

Recently watched The Night Visitor on Amazon. He probably made me watch more subtitled movies than I would have otherwise.