Stockholm (AFP)

Immortalized by his chess game against Death in "The Seventh Seal" by Ingmar Bergman, Max von Sydow, who died at 90, walked for almost 70 years his slim figure in front of the cameras of the greatest directors.

Carcass of almost two meters, piercing blue eyes, hoarse tone of voice: assets used practically without dead time between 1949 and 2018 on film sets.

In Hollywood, Von Sydow, who took French nationality in 2002, lived in particular "L'Exorciste" in 1973 and was chosen by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese for their blockbusters "Minority Report" (2002) and "Shutter Island" (2010) alongside Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio respectively. In 2015, he is still showing a big production, with "Star Wars, episode VII, the awakening of the force".

Strangely, he never garnered any major distinctions. He only had the honors of two Academy Academy nominations for his role in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), by Dane Bille August, and for his second role in the film by the Englishman Stephen Daldry, "Extremely close and incredibly strong "(2011).

How to explain this lack of recognition? "Actors who have had some success are always offered the same kind of roles, and I suffered from it myself" declared the actor in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet at the time of the release of this last film.

Max von Sydow was born on April 10, 1929 in Lund, in the south of Sweden, of a father, Carl Wilhelm, professor of ethnology and of a mother, Greta, teacher. After his secondary studies, he enrolled at the Royal School of Dramatic Art in Stockholm.

The Swedish director Ingmar Bergman set his sights on him in the 1950s and made him play the biggest roles on the stages of the Malmö Theater, such as "Peer Gynt", "Le Misanthrope" or "Faust".

- From the brain to "Conan the Barbarian" -

In 1957, Von Sydow played the Knight in "The Seventh Seal". Bergman will use it in twelve other of his films, among which "The wild strawberries" (1957), "The face" (1958) or "The link" (1971). Most often, the actor is the interpreter of existential anxiety.

In 1960, Max von Sydow returned to the Royal Theater in Stockholm, where he was a member of the troupe until 1972.

At that time, his Hollywood career was already on track: he embodied Jesus in "The greatest story ever told" (1965) alongside Charlton Heston in particular, and played in "Hawaii" (1966) with Julie Andrews. In 1986, Woody Allen offered him a role in "Hannah and her sisters".

John Huston, Sydney Pollack, Bertrand Tavernier, David Lynch, Andrei Konchalovsky, Wim Wenders and Ridley Scott also called on his talents, exploited including in less cerebral films, like "Flash Gordon" (1980), "Conan le Barbarian "(1982) or" Judge Dredd "(1995).

In 1997, Max von Sydow, the father of two boys from a first marriage to the Swedish actress Christina Olin, married French documentary filmmaker Catherine Brelet in a second marriage.

"I want to live in France. And I want to die in France", affirmed the actor, while the couple had settled in France, where he was raised to the rank of Commander of Arts and Letters in 2005 and made Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2011.

It was his wife who announced his death on Monday in a press release: "It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we are extremely sad to announce the departure of Max von Sydow on March 8, 2020".

© 2020 AFP