Victor Sjöström


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Victor Sjöström

Born Victor David Sjöström
September 20, 1879(1879-09-20)
Silbodal, Värmlands län, Sweden
Died January 3, 1960 (aged 80)
Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
Spouse(s) Alexandra Stjagoff (1900-1912)
Lili Bech (1913-1916)
Edith Erastoff (1922-1945)

Victor Sjöström (help·info) (in the United States sometimes known as Victor Seastrom) (September 20, 1879 – January 3, 1960) was a Swedish actor, screenwriter, and film director.


Contents

Overview

Born in Silbodal, in the Värmland region of Sweden, he was only a year old when his family moved to Brooklyn, New York where he remained until the death of his mother when he was seven years old. Returning to live with relatives in Stockholm, he was 17 years old when he began his acting career on stage as a member of a touring theater company. From this, he went on to become one of the most important forces in the development of the Swedish film industry.

Drawn from the stage to the fledgling motion picture industry, he made his first silent film in 1912 under the direction of Mauritz Stiller. Between then and 1923, he directed another forty-one films in Sweden, some of which are now lost. Those that survive, including The Sons of Ingmar, The Phantom Carriage and Karin, Daughter of Ingmar, based on stories by the Nobel-prize winning novelist Selma Lagerlöf, confirm him as one the very greatest of silent film directors, who helped to create a unique idiom with qualities quite different from those of sound cinema. Many of his films from the period are marked by subtle character portrayal, fine storytelling and evocative settings in which the Swedish landscape often plays a key psychological role. The naturalistic quality of his films was enhanced by his (then revolutionary) preference for on-location filming, especially in rural and village settings.

In the 1920s he accepted an offer from Louis B. Mayer to work in the United States. In Sweden, he had acted in his own films as well as in those for others but in Hollywood, he devoted himself solely to directing. In 1924, using an Americanized name, Victor Seastrom, he made Name the Man, a dramatic film based on the Hall Caine novel. He went on to direct great stars of the day such as Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Lon Chaney, and Norma Shearer in another eight films in America before his first talkie in 1930.

Uncomfortable with the modifications needed to direct talking films, Victor Sjöström returned to Sweden where he directed two more films before his final directing effort in 1937, an English language drama filmed in the United Kingdom titled Under the Red Robe. For the next fifteen years, Sjöström returned to theatre acting, performed a variety of leading roles in more than a dozen films and worked as director of the "Svensk Film Industri." At age 78 he gave his final acting performance, an acclaimed effort in the 1957 Ingmar Bergman film, Wild Strawberries.

Victor Sjöström died in Stockholm at the age of eighty and was interred there in the Norra begravningsplatsen.

Filmography

As director

  • Under the Red Robe (1937)
  • Markurells i Wadköping (1931) Father and Son, Markurells of Wadköping, Vater und Sohn
  • Väter und Söhne (1930) Geheimnis der Ehe, Das
  • A Lady to Love (1930)
  • The Wind (1928)
  • The Masks of the Devil (1928)
  • The Divine Woman (1928)
  • The Scarlet Letter (1926)
  • The Tower of Lies (1925)
  • Confessions of a Queen (1925)
  • He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
  • Name the Man (1924)
  • Eld ombord (1923) Fire on Board, Jealousy, The Hell Ship
  • Omringade huset, Det (1922) The House Surrounded, The Surrounded House
  • Vem dömer (1922) Love's Crucible, Mortal Clay
  • Klostret i Sendomir (Secret of the Monastery, The Monastery of Sendomir, 1920)
  • Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage, The Phantom Chariot, The Stroke of Midnight, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness, 1921)
  • Mästerman (1920) A Lover in Pawn
  • Karin Ingmarsdotter (1920) God's Way, Karin Daughter of Ingmar
  • Klostret i Sendomir (1920) Secret of the Monastery,The Monastery of Sendomir
  • Hans nåds testamente (1919) His Grace's Last Testament,His Grace's Will, His Lordship's Last Will
  • Ingmarssönerna (1919) Dawn of Love, Sons of Ingmar
  • Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (1918) Eyvind of the Hills, Love: The Only Law, The Outlaw and His Wife, You and I
  • Tösen från Stormyrtorpet (1917) Girl from Stormy Croft, The Girl from the Marsh Croft, The Woman He Chose
  • Terje Vigen (1917) A Man There Was
  • Therèse (1916)
  • Dödskyssen (1916) Kiss of Death
  • Hon segrade (1916) She Triumphs
  • Havsgamar (1916) Predators of the Sea The Sea Vultures
  • Skepp som mötas (1916) The Ships That Meet
  • Judaspengar (1915) The Price of Betrayal
  • I prövningens stund (1915) In the Hour of Trial
  • Skomakare, bliv vid din läst (1915) Stick to Your Last, Shoemaker
  • Landshövdingens döttrar (1915) The Governor's Daughters, Det var i maj (1915)
  • Sonad skuld (1915) Guilt Redeemed
  • En av de många (1915) One of the Many
  • Hjärtan som mötas (1914) Hearts That Meet
  • Högfjällets dotter (1914) Daughter of the Peaks
  • Gatans barn (1914) Children of the Streets
  • Bra flicka reder sig själv (1914) A Good Girl Keeps Herself in Good Order
  • Strejken (1914) The Strike
  • Dömen icke (1914) ("Judge Not")
  • Prästen (1914) ("Saints and Their Sorrows", "The Clergyman", "The Parson" )
  • Kärlek starkare än hat eller skogsdotterns hemlighet (1914) ("The Poacher")
  • Miraklet (1913) ("The Miracle", "Within the Gates")
  • Livets konflikter (1913) ("The Conflicts of Life")
  • Halvblod (1913) ("Half Breed")
  • Ingeborg Holm (1913)("Margaret Day")
  • Blodets röst (1913) ("The Voice of Passion")
  • Lady Marions sommarflirt (1913) ("Lady Marion's Summer Flirtation")
  • Löjen och tårar (1913) Laughter and Tears
  • Äktenskapsbyrån (1913) Marriage Bureau
  • Trädgårdsmästaren (1912)
  • Hemligt giftermål, Ett (1912)

As actor

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