Gunn Wållgren

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Gunn Wållgren, 1940s
Gunn Wållgren, 1940s

Gunn Wållgren, Gunnel Margaret Haraldsdotter Wållgren, (November 16, 1913 – June 4, 1983) was a Swedish 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 inner soulfulness and her never failing ability of presenting absolute presence and naturalness on stage. Her Chekhov and Ibsen character interpretations, in particular, are considered to be unbeaten.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born and raised in Gothenburg, 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. However, the acting dreams only increased as she strolled by the Bodensee coast 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’s acting school in Stockholm (in 1934) – and was admitted on first try, at age 21.

Gunn Wållgren’s first major role at the Royal Dramatic Theatre as "premiere actress" became the playful daughter Mildred in Eugene O'Neill'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. Master performances by Wållgren on stage include her Sorel Bliss in Noel Coward's Hay Fever in 1937, the strong portrayal of Curley's wife in the original Swedish staging of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in 1940, Iphigenia in Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris 1941, her Ophelia in the classic 1942 staging of Hamlet (opposite Lars Hanson in the titel role), Mary Grey/Joan of Arc in Joan of Lorraine by Maxwell Anderson in 1948, Catherine Sloper in The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz in the 1950/51 season, Indra's daughter in the Olof Molander-staging of Strindberg’s A Dream Play 1955, Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters 1958, Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll's House 1962, Gerda in Strindberg's Storm 1964, the grand portrayal of Madame Liubov Andreievna Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov in 1967, Martha Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace in 1970, the title role of Agnes in Kent Andersson's 1972 play, Lena in Fugard'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 Katherine Hepburn in the same part) in 1981.

As Joan of Arc. The Royal Dramatic Theatre, 1948
As Joan of Arc. The Royal Dramatic Theatre, 1948

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 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 master performances in films such as Flickan och djävulen (1944), Var sin väg (1946), Medan porten var stängd (1946), Kvinna utan ansikte (1947) (script by Ingmar Bergman), Glasberget (1953) and Klänningen (1964), among others.

Her supporting part in Gunnel Lindblom's Sally och friheten (1981) (Sally and Freedom) later in life rendered her Sweden's most prestigious film award, the Guldbagge Award (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's colourful film Fanny och Alexander (1982). The role sadly became her very last as she shortly after the shooting finished was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her condition deteriorated quickly and she past away on the 4th of 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 (actor and director) 1941-49; 2) Per-Axel Branner (stage director) 1954-75. She had two daughters; Susanne and Elaine.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Awards

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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