Trivia

Fluent in a number of languages, including Swedish, English, French and Italian.

He appeared in 13 films directed by Ingmar Bergman: The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Mr. Sleeman Is Coming (1957), Brink of Life (1958), The Magician (1958), Rabies (1958), The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), Hour of the Wolf (1968), Shame (1968), The Passion of Anna (1969) and The Touch (1971).

He was offered the title role in the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), which went to Joseph Wiseman.

He was one of the few actors to have played both God (in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)) and the Devil (in Needful Things (1993)).

He was one of six Swedish actors to be nominated for an Academy Award. The others are Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, Ann-Margret, Lena Olin and Alicia Vikander. von Sydow is the only male Swedish actor to be nominated for an Oscar.

His second Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actor for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)) came at age 82, which was the same age as front-runner Christopher Plummer who was competing with him in the category (also in a second nomination). Plummer won the Oscar for Beginners (2010), in a role previously turned down by von Sydow.

He was one of very few actors to be nominated for an Oscar for a role in a foreign language film, for his performance in Pelle the Conqueror (1987).

His performance as Lasse Karlsson in Pelle the Conqueror (1987) is ranked #57 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

In his career, he had played Jesus, Satan, and was also the title character in the horror classic The Exorcist (1973).

In 2002, he received his French citizenship, at which time he had to renounce his Swedish citizenship.

Appeared in five films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Emigrants (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Awakenings (1990) and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011).

He and his The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) co-stars Donald Pleasence and Telly Savalas all later played the Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Pleasence in You Only Live Twice (1967), Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and von Sydow in Never Say Never Again (1983).

He never retired from acting.

Max von Sydow passed away on March 8, 2020, one month away from what would have been his 91st birthday on April 10.

One of his favorite movies was Pelle the Conqueror (1987).

After not appearing in an Ingmar Bergman film since The Touch (1971), von Sydow was reunited with the master, playing his grandfather in The Best Intentions (1991). While the film was directed by Bille August, the screenplay was written by Ingmar Bergman. Ironically, despite all the classic work von Sydow did with Ingmar Bergman such as the Knight in The Seventh Seal (1957), the eponymous role in The Magician (1958), and the father in The Virgin Spring (1960), his first Oscar nomination came under the hand of Bille August, for Pelle the Conqueror (1987).

Distant relative of Swedish speaker of parliament and ex-minister of defence, Björn von Sydow.

He was considered for the role of William Fawcett Robinson in Somewhere in Time (1980) before Christopher Plummer was cast.

Most of his ancestry was Swedish. His parents also both had more distant German roots, and his mother had a remote Scottish ancestor.

Had four sons, Clas S. von Sydow and Henrik von Sydow with his first wife; and Cédric and Yvan with his second wife. In 1951, von Sydow married actress Christina Olin with whom he had two sons, Claes and Henrik. His children appeared with him in the film Hawaii (1966), playing his son at different ages. He and Olin divorced on 26 February 1979 then he married French filmmaker Catherine Brelet in April 1997 in the Provence, France. He had two sons, Yvan and Cedric, with his second wife. Cédric has appeared and has worked with him since 1994. von Sydow resided in Paris, France with his second wife.

Had resided in Los Angeles, California, Rome, Italy and Paris, France.

He was among the actors in the running for Dr. Hans Fallada in the horror film Lifeforce (1985). Frank Finlay was cast instead.

First Swedish male actor to have received a Golden Globe nomination. The second was Alexander Skarsgård.

Had appeared in two films as a leading villain, in which plots include the use of eye replacement surgery as a means of fooling security eye scanners; as Blofeld in Never Say Never Again (1983) and Lamar Burgess in Minority Report (2002).

He was co-head of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1985.

Is one of 4 Swedish actors to have received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. The others in chronological order are: Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Father of Henrik von Sydow and Clas S. von Sydow.

Adoptive father of Yvan and Cédric Brelet von Sydow, children of Catherine Brelet from a previous marriage.