Died at 97
male
Max von Sydow (born Carl Adolf von Sydow; April 10, 1929 – March 8, 2020) was a Swedish actor. He also held French citizenship since 2002. He starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more. He performed in films filmed in many languages, including Swedish, Norwegian, English, Italian, German, Danish, French and Spanish. Some of his most memorable film roles include knight Antonius Block in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (the first of his eleven films with Bergman and the film that includes the iconic shot of his career in the scene where he plays chess with Death), Jesus in George Stevens's The Greatest Story Ever Told, Father Merrin in Friedkin's The Exorcist, Joubert the assassin in Three Days of the Condor, and Ming the Merciless in the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award - Best Leading Actor for Pelle the Conqueror (1988) and Best Supporting Actor for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011).
Lear retires from the throne and decides to divide the kingdom among his three daughters. However, first, he puts them through a test by asking each of them to declare how much they love him. Eventually, he only subdivides his kingdom between two of his eldest daughters. The reason is that they show a relentless loyalty and love towards their father through superficial flattery. However, the last born daughter despises the phoniness of her sisters and refuses to pander to her father. In response, her father disowns and banishes her. She eventually marries the French king who later leads his army against her two sisters. Soon afterward, King Lear discovers that his elder daughter’s words were mere flattery done to attain power. Upon attaining wealth and land, he soon becomes a nuisance to his daughters who humiliate and discard him. Struck by disbelief that his beloved daughters do not truly love him, Lear starts losing his sanity. He escapes from his daughter’s houses and loiters upon a heath in the course of a great thunderstorm in the company of his fool as well as Kent, a secret nobleman who is loyal to him.
