Max von Sydow was a Swedish-French actor who primarily worked in Hollywood movies. He was shot to fame for his role in The Seventh Seal (1957) where he plays chess with Death. After a much-needed recognition, he started to get offers from abroad. His foreign film career began with playing Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) followed by Hawaii (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966).

Since then, his career includes various characters like Karl Oskar Nilsson in The Emigrants (1971), Father Lankester Merrin in The Exorcist (1973), Joubert the assassin in Three Days of the Condor (1975), Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon (1980) and the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Never Say Never Again (1983). For the portrayal of Lassefar in Pelle the Conqueror (1987), he received his first Academy Award nomination. Max further appeared in films like Awakenings (1990), Minority Report (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination. His 2015 release includes Star Wars: The Force Awakens which was his last Hollywood movie. Max von Sydow passed away in March 2020.