Stellan Skarsgård

A native of Sweden, STELLAN SKARSGÅRD is considered one of the country's top stage and film actors. He began his career with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he spent 16 years working with such leading directors as Alf Sjoberg and Ingmar Bergman. His breakthrough role came in the 1982 Swedish film The Simpleminded Murderer, for which he received the Best Actor award at the Berlin Film Festival.

In addition to the more than 30 films in which he starred in Sweden, Skarsgård's additional credits include The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Hunt for Red October, The Ox (Oscar® nominated for Best Foreign Film), Breaking the Waves (which won the Grand Prix at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival) and the Norwegian film Insomnia.

Skarsgård has been honored with awards from the Berlin Film Festival, the Swedish motion picture industry, the Rouen Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival, the St. Sebastian Film Festival, and the Telluride Film Festival. He won Best European Achievement in World Cinema (1998).

He starred in Thor opposite Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman; he reprised his role in Marvel Studios' The Avengers (helmed by Joss Whedon). He also starred in Lars von Trier's Melancholia, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

He was also seen in other hits such as Angels and Demons, Mamma Mia!, the second and third installments in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and Good Will Hunting.

Columbia Pictures (Sony)