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Rolf Holger Lassgård (born 29 March 1955) is a
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
actor. He is known for his many roles in
crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
s.


Life and career

Lassgård was born in
Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön, ...
,
Jämtland Jämtland (; no, Jemtland or , ; Jamtish: ''Jamtlann''; la, Iemptia) is a historical province () in the centre of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders Härjedalen and Medelpad to the south, Ångermanland to the east, Lapland to the north a ...
. A keen amateur ice hockey player in his youth, he also joined theatre teacher Ingemar Lind's Institute for the Performing Arts in the village of Storhögen outside Östersund. He then attended the Stage School in
Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...
from 1975–78. There Lassgård met the director
Peter Oskarson Peter Oskarson (born 1951) is a Swedish theatre director and actor from Stockholm.theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
at
Landskrona Landskrona (old da, Landskrone) is a town in Scania, Sweden. Located on the shores of the Öresund, it occupies a natural port, which has lent the town at first military and subsequent commercial significance. Ferries operate from Landskrona t ...
, where he remained for four years, making his first television appearance as " Puck" in its production of ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...
'' in 1980. Lassgård followed Oskarson to the ''Folkteatern'' company in
Gävle Gävle () is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 77,586 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the 13th most populated city in Sweden. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland (Swede ...
in 1982, giving a series of highly acclaimed performances. For his role in ''
Önskas ''Önskas'' is a 1991 Swedish comedy film directed by Lars Johansson. Rolf Lassgård was nominated for the award for Best Actor in a leading role at the 27th Guldbagge Awards. Cast * Rolf Lassgård as Bo Roine 'Bosse' Persson * Mattias Holst ...
'' he was nominated for the award for
Best Actor in a leading role Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...
at the
27th Guldbagge Awards The 27th Guldbagge Awards ceremony, presented by the Swedish Film Institute, honored the best Swedish films of 1991, and took place on 16 March 1992. '' Il Capitano: A Swedish Requiem'' directed by Jan Troell was presented with the award for Bes ...
. The following year he won the award at the
28th Guldbagge Awards The 28th Guldbagge Awards ceremony, presented by the Swedish Film Institute, honored the best Swedish films of 1992, and took place on 1 March 1993. ''House of Angels'' directed by Colin Nutley was presented with the award for Best Film. Winne ...
for his role in '' Night of the Orangutan''. Lassgård had various small film roles, but his breakout role was Kjell-Åke Andersson's 1992 film ''Min store tjocke far'' ("My big fat father") for which he won the 1992
Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...
as best male actor. He has gone on to play in a wide range of roles in films, notably as policeman Gunvald Larsson in a series of films made in 1993–94, based on the
Martin Beck Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective and the main character in the ten novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, collectively titled ''The Story of a Crime''. Frequently referred to as the Martin Beck stories, all have been adapt ...
novels, and starring
Gösta Ekman Hans Gösta Gustaf Ekman (; 28 July 1939 – 1 April 2017) was a Swedish actor, comedian, and director. Career Ekman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and was the son of the director Hasse Ekman and Agneta (née Wrangel). Ekman represented t ...
, and as
Kurt Wallander Kurt Wallander () is a fictional Swedish police inspector created by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015). He is the protagonist of many thriller/mystery novels set in and around the town of Ystad, south-east of the city of M ...
in the SVT TV-movie adaptations of the
Henning Mankell Henning Georg Mankell (; 3February 19485October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of ...
novels from 1994–2007. Since then, he has also played a crime psychologist as the titular character in the
crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
television series ''
Sebastian Bergman ''Sebastian Bergman'' (original title ''Den fördömde'', literally "The cursed one") is a Swedish police procedural television series, based on two novels by duo Michael Hjorth and Hans Rosenfeldt. It stars Rolf Lassgård as the eponymous hero, a ...
''. From 2011 - 2015, Lassgård has appeared in Seasons 2,3, and 4 of the TV Norwegian comedy series Dag, playing a free-thinking, free-wheeling therapist. In 2013 he starred in the crime series ''The Death of a Pilgrim'', a dramatic retelling of the assassination of
Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until h ...
and fictionalised account of the discovery of his killer in the 2010s. He had the leading role as Ove in the 2015 film '' A Man Called Ove'', which won him another Guldbagge Award for best male actor.


Personal life

Lassgård married actress Birgitta Lassgård in 1989; they had been a couple since 1982 and have three children. They divorced in 2021.


Selected filmography

* 1991 - ''
Önskas ''Önskas'' is a 1991 Swedish comedy film directed by Lars Johansson. Rolf Lassgård was nominated for the award for Best Actor in a leading role at the 27th Guldbagge Awards. Cast * Rolf Lassgård as Bo Roine 'Bosse' Persson * Mattias Holst ...
'' * 1992 - '' Night of the Orangutan'' * 1993 – ''
Murder at the Savoy ''Murder at the Savoy'' (original title: ''Polis, polis, potatismos!'' literally "Police, Police, Mashed Potatoes!") is a 1970 crime novel by Swedish writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. It is the sixth book out of ten in the detective series ...
'' * 1993 – '' Roseanna'' * 1993 – ''
The Fire Engine That Disappeared ''The Fire Engine That Disappeared'' (''Brandbilen som försvann'') is a mystery novel by Swedish writers Sjöwall and Wahlöö, published in 1969. It is the fifth book in the '' Martin Beck'' detective series. In the novel a house fire, which ki ...
'' * 1993 – ''
The Man on the Balcony ''The Man on the Balcony'' is a mystery novel by Swedish writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, originally published as ''Mannen på balkongen'' in 1967. It is the third novel in the detective series revolving around Swedish police detective Mar ...
'' * 1994 – ''Mördare utan ansikte'' (Faceless Killers) * 1994 – ''
The Police Murderer ''The Police Murderer'' ( sv, Polismördaren) is a 1994 Swedish police film about Martin Beck, directed by Peter Keglevic. Plot A woman is found murdered in a closed amusement park. A young couple who happen to be there at the same time become ...
'' * 1994 – ''
Stockholm Marathon The Stockholm Marathon, known as the adidas Stockholm Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon arranged in Stockholm, Sweden, since 1979. It serves as the Swedish marathon championship race. At the 2009 Stockholm Marathon more t ...
'' * 1995 – ''Hundarna i Riga'' (The Dogs of Riga) * 1996 – ''Den vita lejoninnan'' (The White Lioness) * 1998 - '' Under the Sun'' * 1996 – '' The Hunters'' * 1999 - ''
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'' (as the Swedish voice of Clayton) * 2001 – ''Villospår'' (Sidetracked) * 2002 – ''Den 5:e kvinnan'' (The Fifth Woman) * 2003 – ''Mannen som log'' (The Man Who Smiled) * 2005 – ''Steget efter'' (One Step Behind) * 2006 – ''Brandvägg'' (Firewall) * 2006 – '' After the Wedding'' * 2007 – ''Pyramiden'' (The Pyramid) * 2009 – ''
Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmos ...
'' * 2011 – '' The Hunters 2'' * 2012 – ''
Sebastian Bergman ''Sebastian Bergman'' (original title ''Den fördömde'', literally "The cursed one") is a Swedish police procedural television series, based on two novels by duo Michael Hjorth and Hans Rosenfeldt. It stars Rolf Lassgård as the eponymous hero, a ...
'' * 2013 - '' The Death of a Pilgrim'' * 2014 - '' Another Time, Another Life'' * 2015 - '' A Man Called Ove'' * 2016 - '' The Lion Woman'' * 2017 - '' Downsizing'' * 2018 - ''Jägarna'' * 2019 - ''The Spy''


References


External links

*
Interview by Kerstin Monk - January 2004Branagh's Wallander
- Website relating to the BBC's English-language Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh and Swedish versions with Krister Henriksson and Rolf Lassgärd {{DEFAULTSORT:Lassgård, Rolf 1955 births Living people Swedish male actors Best Actor Guldbagge Award winners