Elith Pio

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Elith Pio circa 1900-1910

Viggo Elith William Pio (July 3, 1887 - February 10, 1983) a Danish actor, was born and lived in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is most well known for starring in Carl Theodor Dreyer's Leaves from Satan's Book, Ole Palsbo's Jenny and the Soldier and Benjamin Christensen's Häxan.

1 Theatre
2 Film
- 2.1 Select Filmography
3 Links

[edit] Theatre

Elith Pio made his theatre debut in 1907 as part of the Peter Fjelstrups theatre company. He worked in various theatres until 1931, when he became part of the The Royal Danish Theatre, which he remained a part of until 1974. Some of his most famous roles were Aristophanes in Johan Ludvig Heiberg's A Soul after the Dead, Dr. Relling and Old Ekdal in Henrik Ibsen's Vildanden, and a chamberlain to in Ibsen's The League of Youth (De unges Forbund).

In Denmark he was well-kown by his countless roles on local radio theatre, where his characteristic voice was an invaluable asset.

[edit] Film

His film debut was in 1908, with the film A Folk Tale (Et Folkesagn). He worked on a large number of silent films (around forty), and in 1931, well known from his work at the Royal Theatre, Elith starred in his first sound feature, Hotel Paradis, in the role of Fridolin. From then on he took part in over forty films, the last of which, The Man Who Thought Life (Manden der tænkte ting) starring John Price, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969.

As part of a small group of participants in an emerging Danish cinema, Pio was a favorite of many directors, working more than once with Bejamin Christensen, Viggo Larsen, Mogens Skot-Hansen, Emanuel Gregers, Ole Palsbo, Gabriel Axel, Knud Leif Thomsen, Lau Lauritzen & Alice O'Fredericks, Svend Methlig, and the legendary Carl Theodor Dreyer. He worked four times with director Johan Jacobsen -- most notably on Jenny and the Soldier -- and four times with director George Schnéevoigt, who also happened to be the cinematographer for both of Elith's films with Dreyer.

Whether by sheer coincidence, happenstance of a small industry, or friendly connections, Elith acted in eight films authored by danish screenwriter Fleming Lynge, who was most well known for writing the 1952 film Meet me on Cassiopeia.

Though most of his films were produced before the advent of major award shows, many of Elith's films were nominated for and won Denmark's Academy Award equivalents, the Bodil Prisen, including 1947's Take What You Want (Ta', hvad du vil ha'), 1947's Jenny and the Soldier (Soldaten og Jenny) -- which was the award's first best picture winner -- 1962's Duellen (which also starred Price, and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival), and 1964's Tine.