Gunnar Bjornstrand

Understated lead and character player in films by virtually every major postwar Swedish director, particularly Ingmar Bergman. Bjornstrand appeared in more than 15 Bergman films between "It Rains On Our Love" (1946) and "Fanny and Alexander" (1982); the collaboration peaked in the mid-1950s with Bjornstrand playing elder gentlemen opposite various younger women in "Secrets of Woman" (1952), "Dreams" and "Smiles of a Summer Night" (both 1955). He was a classmate of Ingrid Bergman at Stockholm's famed Royal Dramatic Theater School.

• Also Credited As:
  Knut Bjornstrand, Knut Gunner Johansson
• Born:
  November 13, 1909 in Stockholm, Sweden
• Died:
  May 24, 1986.
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Education

• Royal Dramatic Theater School, Stockholm, Sweden

Milestones

• 1931 Film acting debut in "Pour mon coeur et ses millions" (France)
• 1946 First appearance in an Ingmar Bergman film, "Det regnar pa var stangd/It Rains On Our Love"; subsequently appeared in more than 15 Bergman films through "Fanny and Alexander" (1982)
• Worked as film extra, then mostly in theater until the late 1930s