Gösta Cederlund

Biography

One of Sweden's most popular and appreciated male character actors in Swedish films in the 1930s-50s, highly appreciated for his naturalness as an actor (rare of his 1880s theatre generation) that he always presented on screen and his warm comedy play. With his 130-plus film roles in his life he's also still the record holder of most roles for a single male actor on film in Sweden. Born in Stockholm, the son of a painter/carpenter, Gösta Cederlund made his professional stage debut at Svenska teatern (Swedish Theatre; Sweden's national stage 1875-1925) in 1907. He first turned to the silent screen where he got to play arrogant farm workers and fighting school boys in silent films at young age, first appearing on screen in The Girl from the Marsh Croft (1917) in 1917. Later on film during the talkies era, in 1930s-50s, he generally got to play the good old uncles; remarkably often he portrayed middle-aged newspaper editors or doctors. Constantly he nice and family secure characters of the middle class. But there are exceptions: his ice-cool and scary performance as the cynical banker in director Hasse Ekman's masterpiece Girl with Hyacinths (1950) (Girl with Hyacinths, 1950) and his tormented old actor in Night Light (1957) (1957). Both brilliant performances. Among his most appreciated film roles we find his Professor Hagstam in films Vi två (1939) (1939) and Vi tre (1940) (1940), the stern Detective Inspector Lilja in the crime drama Ett brott (1940) (A Crime, 1940), Markel in drama Doktor Glas (1942) (1942; based on the success novel of Hjalmar Söderberg), navy captain Göran Bergsten in comedy Blåjackor (1945) (Sailors, 1945), his doctor Hellsten in drama Var sin väg (1948) (Each to His Own Way, 1948), Margaretha's daddy in comedy Skolka skolan (1949) (1948; Sickan Carlsson-film), his tight lord with the monocle in early Swedish musical Greven från gränden (1949) (1949) and, naturally, his tossy but heart-warm school teacher "Pippi" in Torment (1944) (Frenzy/Torment, 1944), directed by Alf Sjöberg; internationally known as Ingmar Bergman's film script debut. The key-scene in the map-room where his teacher confronts the school's great antagonist Caligula - the sadistic teacher in Latin - about his teaching methods is one of strongest and most nerving scenes of the film (and considered one of the best classic scenes all-time in Sweden). In the 1950s and 60s Gösta Cederlund was notably part of the Swedish Television Theatre ensemble (TV-teatern) where he acted in several classic plays. When Alf Sjöberg staged "Hamlet" for television in 1955 he gave a particularly strong and touching portrayal of Polonius; Ophelia's father. Besides acting, Gösta Cederlund was also employed as film director for SF (Swedish Film Industry) the year 1943 where he among other films directed the very controversial Kungsgatan (1943), based on a book by the Swedish working-class writer Ivar Lo-Johansson, a film dealing with the subject of prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases in the cities. It was followed by a vivid national debate and was also banned from many cinemas (today, film-historically in Sweden, it's considered as one of the most important and bravest Swedish films made in the 1940s). Cederlund was a also successfully Managing Director of several theatre's during his life including The Swedish Theatre in Helsinki (Finland) 1923-25, the Lorensberg Theatre in Gotheburg 1926 and the Helsingborg theatre/city theatre 1926-30 (on this post a predecessor to Ingmar Bergman who later came to lead the theatre in the 1940s). The last years of his life he worked at the new established modern Stockholm City Theatre (Stockholms stadsteater), appearing in key roles in several challenging stage plays throughout the late 1960s and in the 1970s, by the new dramatic writers of these decades, a.o. plays by Bertoldt Brecht and Samuel Beckett. He made his last film role as the old caretaker in Monismanien 1995 (1975) 1975, at age 87. He passed away in 1980.