Max von Sydow, star of ‘Game of Thrones’,' dies at 90
The actor’s gaunt face and gravelly voice were immediately recognizable on the big screen
Max von Sydow, the tall, blond Swedish actor who brought gravitas to arthouse dramas, horror movies and Hollywood blockbusters, has died in France aged 90, his agent said on Monday.
He is mostly known in younger generation for portraying the character 'three-eyed raven' in the series "Game of Thrones".
His wife, producer Catherine Brelet, told Paris Match: "It is with a broken heart and with infinite sadness that we have the extreme pain of announcing the departure of Max von Sydow on March 8, 2020."
The actor's gaunt face and gravelly voice were immediately recognizable on the big screen, and made him an ideal match for his compatriot and director Ingrid Bergman, with whom he collaborated on a series of acclaimed movies.
Arguably von Sydow's most famous role was that of the knight Antonius Block, who plays chess with Death in the 1957 fantasy "The Seventh Seal", the film that helped establish Bergman's reputation beyond Scandinavia.
The men went on to work together on more than a dozen movies including "Wild Strawberries" (1957), "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961), "Winter Light" (1963) and "Shame" (1968), before von Sydow branched out into international cinema.
His big Hollywood breakthrough came with the role of Father Merrin in the 1973 horror classic "The Exorcist", after which he worked with Woody Allen in "Hannah and Her Sisters", David Lynch in "Dune" and Sydney Pollack in "Three Days of the Condor".
The 1987 film "Pelle the Conqueror", in which von Sydow played the father of the title character, won the Academy Award for best foreign language film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival among other accolades.
He also appeared in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" which came out in 2015.
