Stellan Skarsgard has firmed his position as the successor to Max von Sydow and Erland Josephson
with his sensitive portrayal of Jan, the oil rig worker who asks his wife (Emily Watson) to sacrifice her life for him in
Lars von Trier's art-house hit "Breaking the Waves" (1996). The handsome Swede began acting as a teenager and won recognition
by age 16 for his co-starring role in the TV series "Bombi Bitt". He then spent 16 years working on stage with the Royal Dramatic
Theatre Company in Stockholm excelling in classic plays, alternating with the occasional film appearance, (i.e., "Anita, Swedish
Nymphet" 1973; "Tabu" 1976).
Skarsgard became firmly established in features with his award-winning turn in "The Simple-Minded
Murderer" (1982). By the end of the 80s, he had begun to appear in international films, portraying an engineer in Philip Kaufman's
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988) and a Soviet submarine commander in John McTiernan's "The Hunt for Red October"
(1991). In 1996, he had the male half of the title role in "Harry and Sonja" and was a dirty, mean seal hunter in "Zero Kelvin".
1997 shaped up to be the actor's biggest year as he filmed roles in the British comedy-drama "My Son the Fanatic", "Savior",
set against the backdrop of the Bosnian conflict, Steven Spielberg's period drama "Amistad" and, in one of his best-known
roles, "Good Will Hunting", as a professor who mentors math whiz Matt Damon. After the latter role, mainstream Hollywood increasingly
beckoned the actor, casting him in middlebrow thrillers such as "Ronin" (1998), "Deep Blue Sea" (1999), "The Glass House"
(2001) "The House on Turk Street" and "City of Ghosts" (both 2002), would-be blockbusters like "King Arthur" (2004), experimental
indies like Alain Berliner's "Passion of Mind" (2000) and Mike Figgis' "Timecode" (2000) and above average telepics including
"Harlan County War" (2000) and "Helen of Troy" (2003).
Among a steady slate of non-Hollywood projects, the actor also reunited with Von Trier for the writer-director's
acclaimed "Dancer in the Dark" (2000), with Skarsgard in a supporting role. Next they teamed on the unusual Danish television
event 2000 "D-dag" (aka "D Day") which aired live on New Year's Eve and had four directors each assigned to an individual
actor in an improvised situation in which the actors would come across each other (while the notion was interesting, the result
was unremarkable); and the actor and director re-teamed for "Dogville" (2003), in which Skarsgard as one of the townspeople
who offers refuge to a mysterious fuguitive (Nicole Kidman) at an awful price.
Given his career similarities to Max von Sydow, it came as no surprise that Skarsgard was cast as
the younger version of Von Sydow's character in "The Exorcist" for the 2004 prequel "Exorcist: The Beginning," playing Father
Merrin in his earlier days. Skarsgard was hired by the film's original director Paul Schrader, and after the studio fired
Schrader and the bulk of the cast, the actor was the only holdover in the subsequent, wholly revamped attempt directed by
Renny Harlin.
In all, Skarsgard has appeared in well over 50 films, including 1986's "Jim och praterna blom" which
he also scripted, although not all have had widespread international distribution. While Skarsgard has appeared in Swedish
TV projects, his only foray in the USA was the busted NBC pilot "Parker Kane" in 1990.
