Gunn Wållgren


Gunn Wållgren was a Swedish actress.
Considered one of Sweden's finest and also to date most appreciated actresses, Wållgren was famous for her fragile and sensual way of acting, her warm and rich inner soulfulness, and her never failing ability of presenting an absolute presence and naturalness on stage. Her Chekhov and Ibsen character interpretations, in particular, are considered to be unsurpassed.

Biography

Born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest town, Gunn Wållgren played a lot of amateur theatre in local groups in her teenage years. She knew very early that she wanted to become an actress although her father; the stern company manager Harald Wållgren, strongly disapproved: To get the theatre ideas out of her head, he even sent her overseas on a trip to Switzerland. However, the acting dreams only increased as she strolled by the coast of Lake Constance and had only gotten worse by the time she returned. Carrying a tremendous personal shyness and insecurity she secretly applied for the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school in Stockholm – and was admitted on first try, at age 21.
Gunn Wållgren's first major role at the Royal Dramatic Theatre as "premiere actress" became the playful daughter Mildred in Eugene O'Neill's beautiful play Ah, Wilderness! in 1936. Winning the critics' and the audience's heart in her part she received an immediate contract with the Royal Dramatic Theatre after her graduation from drama school in 1937. Even though she came to work at different theatres all her life, she always returned to the national stage. Some master performances by Wållgren on stage include her Sorel Bliss in Noël Coward's Hay Fever in 1937, Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like It 1938, the strong portrayal of Curley's wife in the original Swedish staging of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in 1940, Iphigenia in Goethe's Iphigenia in Tauris 1941, her Ophelia in the classic 1942 staging of Hamlet, Mary Grey/Joan of Arc in Joan of Lorraine by Maxwell Anderson in 1948, Catherine Sloper in The Heiress by Ruth and Augustus Goetz in the 1950/51 season, Indra's daughter in the Olof Molander-staging of Strindberg's A Dream Play 1955, Nina in Chekhov's The Seagull 1955, Masha in Chekhov's Three Sisters 1958, Isabella in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure 1958, Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House 1962, Gerda in Strindberg's Storm 1964, Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts 196?, the grand portrayal of Madame Liubov Andreievna Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov in 1967, Martha Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace in 1970, the title role of Agnes in Kent Andersson's 1972 play, Lena in Fugard's Boesman and Lena 1977; and the role of Ethel Thayer in Sista sommaren in 1981.
Her film debut came with Sonja in 1943, but her break-through came with Kvinnor i fångenskap the same year, where Wållgren portrayed a young prisoner on the run. Being "of the theatre" Gunn Wållgren filmed sporadically during her life. But whenever she turned to the big screen she was "The Actress". Ranked absolutely equivalent to Ingrid Bergman back in Sweden at the time, both in beauty and in talent she delivered electrifying performances in films such as Flickan och djävulen 1944, Var sin väg 1946, Medan porten var stängd 1946, Kvinna utan ansikte 1947, Glasberget 1953 and Klänningen 1964, among others.
Her supporting part in Gunnel Lindblom's debating drama Sally och friheten , about a woman dealing with the painful memories and reality of an abortion, later in life rendered her Sweden's most prestigious film award, the Guldbagge Award, for Best Actress.
She was highly praised everywhere for her warm and sober portrayal of the grandmother – the immediate centre of the Ekdahl family - in Ingmar Bergman's colourful film Fanny och Alexander. The role was to be her very last, as shortly after the shooting finished she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her condition deteriorated quickly and she died on 4 June 1983; ten months later Bergman's film was awarded with 4 Oscars, one for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
Gunn Wållgren was married to 1) Erik "Hampe" Faustman Per-Axel Branner 1954-75. She had two daughters ; Susanne and Elaine.

Partial filmography