He later starred as the hard-working prole in Bille August's "Pelle the Conqueror," for which the Academy finally recognized him, nominating von Sydow for best actor. Occasionally more was demanded of him, and he worked extensively with another Swedish director, Jan Troell, first in the multipart "4 x 4," in 1965, then in two-part epic "The Emigrants" and "The New Land," with Bergman co-star Liv Ullman, in the early '70s and Troell's Hollywood failure "Hurricane" in 1979. He also took unchallenging roles in the likes of "Conan the Barbarian" and "Judge Dredd" but had a somewhat more complex part in Lynch's "Dune" adaptation. Mostly they're villains, and villains are usually too much cliche," he once said. And there aren't that many American films with nice foreigners. "Because I am a Swede, not an Englishman or an American, the parts I'm offered are always foreigners.
He even played Satan in 1993's Stephen King adaptation "Needful Things." No, which he turned down in favor of the Christ role in "The Greatest Story Ever Told"). He also played the title role in the philosophical but bizarre film adaptation of Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf," in 1974, and he racked up more bad-guy roles in "Three Days of the Condor" (menacing assassin), "Flash Gordon" (comicbook supervillain) and the James Bond film "Never Say Never Again" (it is said von Sydow had been offered the role of Dr. He was the central figure in William Friedkin's 1973 blockbuster "The Exorcist" and would reprise the role of Father Merrin in "Exorcist II: The Heretic," directed by John Boorman in 1977. He was cast, somewhat strangely, in the central role of Christ in Stevens' 1965 widescreen epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told," and for several years in villain-type roles in films such as "The Quiller Memorandum," "Hawaii," "The Kremlin Letter" and "The Night Visitor." He continued to appear onstage in Sweden and appeared briefly on Broadway twice: in 1977 in the Strindberg portrait "The Night of the Tribades," which also starred Bibi Andersson and Eileen Atkins, and in 1982 opposite Anne Bancroft in "Duet for One."ĭespite such stage work, however, von Sydow worked regularly in English-language films, becoming one of the few foreign actors to do so.
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