Georg af Klercker

Biography

Georg af Klercker in Kristianstad, was a Swedish director, screenwriter and actor. He was originally a military lieutenant at the Svea Life Guards, but resigned in 1907 because he was more interested in the world of theater. After a brief period with a touring company he was hired as an actor by the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In 1911 he became the studio manager at Svenska Bio. In 1912 the French screenwriter and director Paul Garbagni was in Sweden shooting The Springtime of Life (I lifvets vår). What distinguishes this film is that the male leads were played by Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller and Georg af Klercker, the three filmmakers who a few years later would form the backbone of the phenomenon known as the Golden Age of Swedish cinema. Georg af Klercker made his first feature film the same year and had his first hit with the short "Dödsritten under cirkuskupolen/ The Last Performance". He was at the height of his career as a director between 1915 and 1917. In 1916 alone he made 14 films, a workload that probably contributed to the nervous breakdown he had at the end of that year. The next year he confined himself to a 'mere' 9 films, ending his career as a director in 1918. After some time, he returned to the theater as an actor, moved to Malmö where he died in 1951.