Michael Nyqvist(1960-2017)
- Actor
- Producer
Born Rolf Åke Mikael Nyqvist in Stockholm, Sweden,
it wasn't until he was over a year old when he was finally adopted from
the orphanage he had been given to. His father was a lawyer and his
mother a writer. It wasn't until he had his first child that he decided
to seek out his biological parents. After a long journey, he met his
biological mother who is Swedish and is now close to his biological
father who is Italian and a pharmacist.
Acting wasn't always originally on the agenda for Nyqvist. A career in
hockey was desired until an injury lead to an early retirement. At the
age of 17, Nyqvist went to Omaha, Nebraska in America as an exchange
student for a year. This is where his passion for acting first sparked.
He took his first acting classes and played in addition to other roles, a part
in a school version of the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
However, upon returning to Sweden he got accepted into Ballet school
but after one year gave it up insisting he was too "stiff" and twirls
and twists were not for him. An ex-girlfriend suggested to try theatre
instead and at 19 years old, he was accepted into the Swedish Academic
School of Drama in Malmö. He then went onto work mainly in theatre but
also had several parts in film productions.
He became well known for his role as police officer Banck in the first
series of Beck (1997) films made in 1997. His big breakthrough in European
cinema came three years later, as he starred as Rolf, an alcoholic and
abusive husband, in a film by Lukas Moodysson called Together (2000). This
role landed him his first Guldbagge nomination (Best Supporting Actor)
and won him the Best Actor award at the Gijón International Film
Festival.
The accolades, awards and nominations flowed on from there. In 2002,
Nyqvist played the leading man in the Swedish romantic comedy-drama,
Grabben i graven bredvid (2002) directed by Kjell Sundvall and based on
the novel of the same name written by Katarina Mazetti. He won a Best
Actor Guldbagge award for his performance. The following year, Nyqvist
starred as the leading role in As It Is in Heaven (2004) which was Academy
Award nominated for Best Foreign Film and his performance as an
internationally renowned, struggling conductor earned Nyqvist his
second nomination for a Best Actor Guldbagge award. In 2006, he was
nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Guldbagge award for his role in
the film Mother of Mine (2005).
Over the next few years he went on to star in several other films and
plays as part of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. A notable role that
Nyqvist portrayed was that of Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam in the
film The Black Pimpernel (2007). Edelstam was a hero that saved several lives
from execution in Chile during and after the military coupe in
September 1973.
In 2008, it was announced that Nyqvist was chosen to star as Mikael
Blomkvist of the literary phenomenon, the Millennium Trilogy written by
Stieg Larsson. It was long speculated by Scandinavian tabloids that
fellow Swedish actor, Mikael Persbrandt could be chosen for the role of
Blomkvist until Niels Arden Oplev claimed that 'he would not have been right for
the role.' Oplev needed 'a humanist with his heart in the right place,
a Swedish teddy bear whom women would feel safe in his arms...a man who
respects women, regardless of what type they are.' Nyqvist's
capabilities as an actor and his public persona scored him the role.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and its sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) were released in 2009 throughout Europe and in the following year, throughout
the rest of the world. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has garnered
international critical acclaim. Oplev, Noomi Rapace (who starred as Lisbeth
Salander, female protagonist of the trilogy) and Nyqvist all gained
international recognition. Nyqvist said that his role as Blomkvist
'put me on the map internationally.' As a result he starred in two major Hollywood action movies as the leading villain: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) as Hendricks, and John Wick (2014) as Tarasov. He made other movies in English, and continued to work in Swedish language projects.
He appeared in two films based on novels by well-known
Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, Kennedy's Brain (2010) and The Man from Beijing (2011). There was speculation and talk from Mankell that
Nyqvist would be his first choice to play Swedish Prime Minister Olof
Palme, who was assassinated in 1986, but that project never materialized. Instead, one of his final appearances was as a man who was the diametric opposite of Palme: he played Hendrik Verwoed, the architect of apartheid in South Africa, in Madiba (2017).
Michael Nyqvist was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he passed away of the disease in Stockholm in June 2017, aged 56.
He was married to set designer, Catharina Ehrnrooth and had two
children Ellen (born in 1991) and Arthur (born in 1996).
it wasn't until he was over a year old when he was finally adopted from
the orphanage he had been given to. His father was a lawyer and his
mother a writer. It wasn't until he had his first child that he decided
to seek out his biological parents. After a long journey, he met his
biological mother who is Swedish and is now close to his biological
father who is Italian and a pharmacist.
Acting wasn't always originally on the agenda for Nyqvist. A career in
hockey was desired until an injury lead to an early retirement. At the
age of 17, Nyqvist went to Omaha, Nebraska in America as an exchange
student for a year. This is where his passion for acting first sparked.
He took his first acting classes and played in addition to other roles, a part
in a school version of the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.
However, upon returning to Sweden he got accepted into Ballet school
but after one year gave it up insisting he was too "stiff" and twirls
and twists were not for him. An ex-girlfriend suggested to try theatre
instead and at 19 years old, he was accepted into the Swedish Academic
School of Drama in Malmö. He then went onto work mainly in theatre but
also had several parts in film productions.
He became well known for his role as police officer Banck in the first
series of Beck (1997) films made in 1997. His big breakthrough in European
cinema came three years later, as he starred as Rolf, an alcoholic and
abusive husband, in a film by Lukas Moodysson called Together (2000). This
role landed him his first Guldbagge nomination (Best Supporting Actor)
and won him the Best Actor award at the Gijón International Film
Festival.
The accolades, awards and nominations flowed on from there. In 2002,
Nyqvist played the leading man in the Swedish romantic comedy-drama,
Grabben i graven bredvid (2002) directed by Kjell Sundvall and based on
the novel of the same name written by Katarina Mazetti. He won a Best
Actor Guldbagge award for his performance. The following year, Nyqvist
starred as the leading role in As It Is in Heaven (2004) which was Academy
Award nominated for Best Foreign Film and his performance as an
internationally renowned, struggling conductor earned Nyqvist his
second nomination for a Best Actor Guldbagge award. In 2006, he was
nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Guldbagge award for his role in
the film Mother of Mine (2005).
Over the next few years he went on to star in several other films and
plays as part of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. A notable role that
Nyqvist portrayed was that of Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam in the
film The Black Pimpernel (2007). Edelstam was a hero that saved several lives
from execution in Chile during and after the military coupe in
September 1973.
In 2008, it was announced that Nyqvist was chosen to star as Mikael
Blomkvist of the literary phenomenon, the Millennium Trilogy written by
Stieg Larsson. It was long speculated by Scandinavian tabloids that
fellow Swedish actor, Mikael Persbrandt could be chosen for the role of
Blomkvist until Niels Arden Oplev claimed that 'he would not have been right for
the role.' Oplev needed 'a humanist with his heart in the right place,
a Swedish teddy bear whom women would feel safe in his arms...a man who
respects women, regardless of what type they are.' Nyqvist's
capabilities as an actor and his public persona scored him the role.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and its sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) were released in 2009 throughout Europe and in the following year, throughout
the rest of the world. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has garnered
international critical acclaim. Oplev, Noomi Rapace (who starred as Lisbeth
Salander, female protagonist of the trilogy) and Nyqvist all gained
international recognition. Nyqvist said that his role as Blomkvist
'put me on the map internationally.' As a result he starred in two major Hollywood action movies as the leading villain: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) as Hendricks, and John Wick (2014) as Tarasov. He made other movies in English, and continued to work in Swedish language projects.
He appeared in two films based on novels by well-known
Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, Kennedy's Brain (2010) and The Man from Beijing (2011). There was speculation and talk from Mankell that
Nyqvist would be his first choice to play Swedish Prime Minister Olof
Palme, who was assassinated in 1986, but that project never materialized. Instead, one of his final appearances was as a man who was the diametric opposite of Palme: he played Hendrik Verwoed, the architect of apartheid in South Africa, in Madiba (2017).
Michael Nyqvist was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he passed away of the disease in Stockholm in June 2017, aged 56.
He was married to set designer, Catharina Ehrnrooth and had two
children Ellen (born in 1991) and Arthur (born in 1996).