Carl Barcklind

Biography

June 1, 1873: a boy opens his eyes for the first time in the mining town of Sala, Västmanland. Half a century and change later, Swedish cinema-goers would open theirs to Carl Barcklind—by then a seasoned actor-turned-director—flickering across silent screens and, later, through talkies. His fingerprints are on the 1914 zombie satire De lefvande dödas klubb, the 1923 comedy romp Andersson, Pettersson och Lundström, and the 1937 sailor’s yarn En sjöman går iland. Between takes he shared life’s script with two leading ladies, Hilma and Georgina Barcklind. The final curtain fell in Stockholm on August 21, 1945, closing a life lived squarely in the spotlight.