Gunn Wållgren
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
actress.
Considered one of Sweden's finest and also to date most appreciated actresses, Wållgren was famous for her fragile and sensual way of acting, her warm and rich inner soulfulness, and her never failing ability of presenting an absolute presence and naturalness on stage. Her Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
and Ibsen character interpretations, in particular, are considered to be unbeaten.
Biography
Born and raised in GothenburgGothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden's second capital, Gunn Wållgren played a lot of amateur theatre in local groups in her teenage years. She knew very early that she wanted to become an actress although her father; the stern company manager Harald Wållgren, strongly disapproved: To get the theatre ideas out of her head, he even sent her overseas on a trip to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. However, the acting dreams only increased as she strolled by the coast of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
and had only gotten worse by the time she returned. Carrying a tremendous personal shyness and insecurity (which came to define and restrict her private persona all life) she secretly applied for the Royal Dramatic Theatre
Royal Dramatic Theatre
The Royal Dramatic Theatre is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's eight running stages....
's acting school in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
(in 1934) – and was admitted on first try, at age 21.
Gunn Wållgren's first major role at the Royal Dramatic Theatre
Royal Dramatic Theatre
The Royal Dramatic Theatre is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's eight running stages....
as "premiere actress" became the playful daughter Mildred in Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
's beautiful play Ah, Wilderness! (a very successful and long-running production) in 1936. Winning the critics' and the audience's heart in her part she received an immediate contract with the Royal Dramatic Theatre after her graduation from drama school in 1937. Even though she came to work at different theatres all her life, she always returned to the national stage. Some master performances by Wållgren on stage include her Sorel Bliss in Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Hay Fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
in 1937, Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
1938 (directed by Alf Sjöberg), the strong portrayal of Curley's wife in the original Swedish staging of John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's Of Mice and Men in 1940, Iphigenia in Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris 1941, her Ophelia
Ophelia
Ophelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet.-Plot:...
in the classic 1942 staging of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
(opposite Lars Hanson
Lars Hanson
Lars Hanson was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era.-Biography:...
in the titel role), Mary Grey/Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
in Joan of Lorraine by Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson
James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.-Early years:Anderson was born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scots and Irish descent...
in 1948, Catherine Sloper in The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz in the 1950/51 season, Indra's daughter in the Olof Molander
Olof Molander
Olof Molander was a great and influential Swedish theatre- and film director, most notable for his many Strindberg and Shakespeare productions....
-staging of Strindberg
Strindberg
Strindberg may refer to:People* August Strindberg , Swedish dramatist and painter* Nils Strindberg , Swedish photographer* Anita Strindberg , Swedish actor* Henrik Strindberg , Swedish composerOther...
's A Dream Play
A Dream Play
A Dream Play was written in 1901 by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It was first performed in Stockholm on 17 April 1907. It remains one of Strindberg's most admired and influential dramas, seen as an important precursor to both dramatic Expressionism and Surrealism.-Plot:The primary...
1955, Nina in Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
1955, Masha in Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's Three Sisters
Three Sisters (play)
Three Sisters is a play by Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov, perhaps partially inspired by the situation of the three Brontë sisters, but most probably by the three Zimmermann sisters in Perm...
1958, Isabella in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
1958, Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House
A Doll's House
A Doll's House is a three-act play in prose by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month....
1962, Gerda in Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
's Storm 1964, Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts 196?, the grand portrayal of Madame Liubov Andreievna Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
by Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
in 1967, Martha Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the...
in 1970, the title role of Agnes in Kent Andersson's 1972 play, Lena in Fugard
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
's Boesman and Lena 1977; and the role of Ethel Thayer in Sista sommaren (play based on the Oscar winning film On Golden Pond, starring Katharine Hepburn in the same part) in 1981.
Her filmdebut came with Sonja in 1943, but her break-through came with Kvinnor i fångenskap the same year, where Wållgren portrayed a young prisoner on the run. Being "of the theatre" Gunn Wållgren filmed sporadically during her life. But whenever she turned to the big screen she was "The Actress". Ranked absolutely equivalent to Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
back in Sweden at the time, both in beauty and in talent (in Sweden even considered some notches higher than Bergman as an actress) she delivered electrifying performances in films such as Flickan och djävulen (The Girl And The Devil) (opposite Stig Järrel
Stig Järrel
Stig Järrel was a Swedish actor, film director and revue artist. Järrel was one of the most popular actors in Sweden during his career, and also one of the most productive, participating in a total of 131 films...
) 1944, Var sin väg (Each To His Own Way) 1946, Medan porten var stängd (While The Door Was Locked) 1946 (written & directed by Hasse Ekman
Hasse Ekman
Hasse Ekman was a Swedish director, actor, writer and producer for film, stage and television.Hasse Ekman is probably Sweden's most successful and critically acclaimed film director pre Ingmar Bergman and post Sjöström and Stiller, with his peak in mid-1940s to the year 1950...
), Kvinna utan ansikte
Woman Without a Face
Woman Without a Face is a 1947 Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander and written by Ingmar Bergman.-Cast:* Alf Kjellin - Martin Grandé* Anita Björk - Frida Grandé* Gunn Wållgren - Rut Köhler* Stig Olin - Ragnar Ekberg...
(Woman Without A Face)
Woman Without a Face
Woman Without a Face is a 1947 Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander and written by Ingmar Bergman.-Cast:* Alf Kjellin - Martin Grandé* Anita Björk - Frida Grandé* Gunn Wållgren - Rut Köhler* Stig Olin - Ragnar Ekberg...
1947 (with an early script by Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
), Glasberget (Mountain Of Glass) 1953 (directed by Hasse Ekman
Hasse Ekman
Hasse Ekman was a Swedish director, actor, writer and producer for film, stage and television.Hasse Ekman is probably Sweden's most successful and critically acclaimed film director pre Ingmar Bergman and post Sjöström and Stiller, with his peak in mid-1940s to the year 1950...
) and Klänningen (The Dress) 1964 (directed by Olof Molander
Olof Molander
Olof Molander was a great and influential Swedish theatre- and film director, most notable for his many Strindberg and Shakespeare productions....
with script by Vilgot Sjöman
Vilgot Sjöman
David Harald Vilgot Sjöman was a Swedish writer and film director. His films deal with controversial issues of social class, morality, and sexual taboos, combining the emotionally-tortured characters of Ingmar Bergman with the avant garde style of the French New Wave...
), among others.
Her supporting part in Gunnel Lindblom
Gunnel Lindblom
Gunnel Lindblom , is a Swedish film actress and director. As an actor she has been particularly associated with the work of Ingmar Bergman, though in 1965 she performed the lead role in Miss Julie for BBC Television...
's debating drama Sally och friheten (1981) (Sally and Freedom), about a woman dealing with the painful memories and reality of an abortion, later in life rendered her Sweden's most prestigious film award, the Guldbagge Award
Guldbagge Award
The Guldbagge Award is an official Swedish film award awarded annually since 1964 by the Swedish Film Institute.-Etymology:Guldbagge is the Swedish name for Cetonia aurata, a beetle also known as rose chafer. The name of the award could also be interpreted as a play on the Swedish word skalbagge,...
(the Golden Beetle), for Best Supporting Actress.
She was highly praised everywhere for her warm and sober portrayal of the grandmother – the immediate centre of the Ekdahl family - in Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's colourful film Fanny och Alexander (1982). The role was to be her very last, as shortly after the shooting finished she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her condition deteriorated quickly and she died on 4 June 1983; ten months later Bergman's film was awarded with 4 Oscars, one for Best Foreign Language Film, at the Academy Awards.
Gunn Wållgren was married to 1) Erik "Hampe" Faustman
Hampe Faustman
Erik "Hampe" Faustman was a Swedish actor and film director. He appeared in 23 films between 1940 and 1961. He also directed 20 films between 1943 and 1955.Married to actress Gunn Wållgren 1941–1949.-Selected filmography:...
(actor and film director) 1941-49 and; 2) Per-Axel Branner (stage director) 1954-75 (his death). She had two daughters (from her marriage with Faustman); Susanne and Elaine.
Selected filmography
- 1982 - Fanny and AlexanderFanny and AlexanderFanny and Alexander is a 1982 Swedish fantasy drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was originally conceived as a four-part TV movie and cut in that version, spanning 312 minutes. A 188-minute version was created later for cinematic release, although this version was in fact the...
- 1981 - Sally och friheten
- 1978 - Strandvaskeren
- 1977 - Bröderna LejonhjärtaThe Brothers Lionheart (film)The Brothers Lionheart is a 1977 Swedish fantasy film directed by Olle Hellbom and based on the book The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren...
(aka Astrid LindgrenAstrid LindgrenAstrid Anna Emilia Lindgren , 14 November 1907 – 28 January 2002) was a Swedish author and screenwriter who is the world's 25th most translated author and has sold roughly 145 million copies worldwide...
's The Brothers Lionheart)
- 1976 - Förvandlingen (aka Kafka's The MetamorphosisThe MetamorphosisThe Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. It is often cited as one of the seminal works of short fiction of the 20th century and is widely studied in colleges and universities across the western world...
) (TV-theatre) - 1974 - Rulle på Rulseröd (mini series)
- 1972 - Mannen som slutade röka (aka The Man Who Gave Up Smoking)
- 1970 - Söderkåkar (mini series)
- 1970 - Frida och hennes vän (mini series)
- 1969 - Miss and Mrs Sweden
- 1967 - Gengångare (aka Ibsen's GhostsGhosts (play)Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882.Like many of Ibsen's better-known plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th century morality....
) (TV-theatre) - 1967 - Fadren (aka StrindbergStrindbergStrindberg may refer to:People* August Strindberg , Swedish dramatist and painter* Nils Strindberg , Swedish photographer* Anita Strindberg , Swedish actor* Henrik Strindberg , Swedish composerOther...
's The Father) (TV-theatre) - 1966 - Tartuffe (TV-theatre)
- 1966 - Kvinnas man (TV-theatre)
- 1966 - Asmodeus (TV-theatre)
- 1964 - Klänningen (aka The Dress)
- 1953 - Glasberget
- 1948 - Var sin väg
- 1947 - Kvinna utan ansikte (aka Woman Without A FaceWoman Without a FaceWoman Without a Face is a 1947 Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander and written by Ingmar Bergman.-Cast:* Alf Kjellin - Martin Grandé* Anita Björk - Frida Grandé* Gunn Wållgren - Rut Köhler* Stig Olin - Ragnar Ekberg...
) - 1946 - Medan porten var stängd
- 1946 - Begär
- 1945 - Resan bortResan bort-Cast:* Gunn Wållgren as Ellen Andersson* Holger Löwenadler as Hjalmar Andersson* Sture Lagerwall as Bernt* Maj-Britt Nilsson as Eva* Lars Nordrum as Ole* Hjördis Petterson as Miss Wetterdahl* Åke Claesson as Doctor Löfberg...
- 1945 - Brott och straff (Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor DostoevskyFyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
's Crime and PunishmentCrime and PunishmentCrime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his... - 1944 - Kejsarn av Portugallien (Selma LagerlöfSelma LagerlöfSelma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
's The Emperor of Portugallia) - 1944 - Flickan och djävulen
- 1943 - Ordet
- 1943 - Sjätte skottet
- 1943 - Kvinnor i fångenskap)
- 1943 - Sonja
Awards
- The Eugene O'Neill AwardEugene O'Neill AwardThe Eugene O'Neill Award , is one of Sweden's finest acting awards for actors of the stage...
(1959) - The Swedish Theatre Critics' Award (1962)
- The Guldbagge AwardGuldbagge AwardThe Guldbagge Award is an official Swedish film award awarded annually since 1964 by the Swedish Film Institute.-Etymology:Guldbagge is the Swedish name for Cetonia aurata, a beetle also known as rose chafer. The name of the award could also be interpreted as a play on the Swedish word skalbagge,...
for Best Supporting Actress (1981)