Gunn Wållgren

Gunn Wållgren, born "Gunnel" (IPA2|'gɵnəlFact|date=September 2007) "Margaret Haraldsdotter Wållgren" (IPA2|'vɔlgreːnFact|date=September 2007), (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.

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 coast of Lake Constance 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 Katharine Hepburn in the same part) in 1981.

[
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 passed away on 4 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 film director) 1941-49; 2) Per-Axel Branner (stage director) 1954-75. She had two daughters; Susanne and Elaine.

elected filmography

*1982 - Fanny and Alexander
*1981 - Sally och friheten
*1978 - Strandvaskeren
*1977 - Bröderna Lejonhjärta (aka Astrid Lindgren's "The Brothers Lionheart")
*1976 - Förvandlingen (aka Kafka's "The Metamorphosis") (TV-theatre)
*1974 - Rulle på Rulseröd (mini series)
*1972 - Mannen som slutade röka (aka "The Man Who Gave Up Smoking")
*1970 - Söderkåkar (mini series)
*1970 - Frida och hennes vän (mini series)
*1969 - Miss and Mrs Sweden
*1967 - Gengångare (aka Ibsen's "Ghosts") (TV-theatre)
*1967 - Fadren (aka Strindberg's "The Father") (TV-theatre)
*1966 - Tartuffe (TV-theatre)
*1966 - Kvinnas man (TV-theatre)
*1966 - Asmodeus (TV-theatre)
*1964 - Klänningen (aka "The Dress")
*1953 - Glasberget
*1948 - Var sin väg
*1947 - Kvinna utan ansikte (aka "Woman Without A Face")
*1946 - Medan porten var stängd
*1946 - Begär
*1945 - Resan bort
*1945 - Brott och straff (Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"
*1944 - Kejsarn av Portugallien" (Selma Lagerlöf's "The Emperor of Portugallia"
*1944 - Flickan och djävulen
*1943 - Ordet
*1943 - Sjätte skottet
*1943 - Kvinnor i fångenskap)
*1943 - Sonja

Awards

*The Eugene O'Neill Award (1959)
*The Swedish Theatre Critics' Award (1962)
*The Guldbagge Award for "Best Supporting Actress" (1981)

ee also

*The Gunn Wållgren Award

External links

*imdb name|id=0944206|name=Gunn Wållgren SWE
* [http://193.10.144.135/(asy0h33wojbjih45xfubtuqi)/Person.aspx?Id=61441 Gunn Wållgren at Svenskfilmdatabas.se - Swedish Film Database] swe icon
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12236670 Gunn Wållgren] at [http://www.findagrave.com Find-A-Grave.com]
* [http://www.dramaten.se/Dramaten/Upplev-Dramaten/Rollboken/?qType=person&value=5502 Complete list of Gunn Wållgren's stage work at the Royal Dramatic Theatre] swe icon