Stellan Skarsgard Biography (3)
Skarsgård began acting when he was still an infant in his native Sweden, and became a household name after starring in the popular television series Bombi Bitt. He joined the Royal Dramatic Theater Company in Stockholm in 1972, working with Scandanavia's finest directors - including Ingmar Bergman, Per Verner-Carlsson and Alf Sjoberg - in a variety of classic plays.
In addition to the more than 30 Swedish films in which Skarsgård has starred, his impressive credits include the action-adventure Ronin with Robert DeNiro; Gus Van Sant's Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting; and Steven Spielberg's acclaimed Amistad.
Other credits include The Unbearable Lightness of Being; The Hunt for Red October; The Ox (Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film); Breaking the Waves (which won the Grand Prix at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival); and the Norwegian film Insomnia.
For television, Skarsgård most recently starred opposite Holly Hunter in Harlan County, directed by Tony Bill.
Skarsgård's awards include the Best Actor Berlin Film Festival award for his breakthrough role in The Simpleminded Murderer; the 1998 Best European Achievement in World Cinema award; a silver medal from the Teluride Film Festival in 2000; and awards from the Swedish Motion Picture Industry, the Rouen Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival, and the St. Sebastian Film Festival.
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