Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson, one of Sweden’s most respected and versatile actors, was born a twin in Stockholm on 28^th January 1927 to Ingmar Einar, an architect, and Theresa (nee Kueppers) Oscarsson. His career has spanned seven decades and, at the dawn of the 2010s, showed little sign of slowing down.

Oscarsson’s interest in acting developed while he was at school, and he studied with theatre director and actor Gosta Terserus. His mother strongly disapproved of her son following a career in acting, so in 1944 he forged the signatures necessary to enable him to study at Dramaten elevskola, the acting school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm. He completed his studies there in 1947, and won a role in Stig Dagerman av skuggan Mart in 1948.

In the early 60s, Oscarsson branched out into writing with the publication of a book, Nattens färger, and a play, Avslöjandet. In 1964 he joined the Stockholm Riksteatern. However, despite his reputation as a stage actor, Oscarsson was always stricken with terrible stage fright, which prompted him to retire from the theatre in the mid 1970s. He would not return to the stage until 1989, when he appeared in a production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman in Gothenburg.

Oscarsson’s first screen appearance in 1944 with an uncredited role in Örnungar, a popular story about a girl’s love of gliding, saw the beginning of his dual career in film and on stage. It was not long before he began winning credited roles, the first being the part of Jan Westman in the comedy Kristin kommenderar (1946) opposite Gunnar Björnstrand. Varied roles followed, including a role opposite Ingrid Thulin in Havets son (Son of the Sea) (1949), Möte med livet (Dangers of Love) (1952), a cautionary tale about sexually transmitted diseases, and Karin Månsdotter, the true story of a soldier’s daughter (Ulla Jacobsen) who became the wife of the mnetally unstable King Eric XIV (1954).

During the 60s, Oscarsson worked regularly with such noted filmmakers as Arne Mattson and Jan Troell, but it was his collaboration in 1966 with the Danish director Henning Carlson that finally won him international recognition. In Sult (Hunger), based on a novel by Knut Hamsun, Oscarsson played a destitute young writer in 1890s Oslo who becomes embroiled in a tempestuous relationship with a beautiful woman (Gunnel Lindblom). The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1966 and won Oscarsson that year’s Best Actor award. His performance earned him four awards in total, including Best Actor from The National Society of Film Critics - the first time the award had been given for a non-English speaking role.. The success of Sult led to offers of work opposite such international stars as Laurence Harvey, Tom Courteney, Mia Farrow (A Dandy in Aspic, 1968), Omar Sharif, Michael Caine (The Last Valley, 1970), Max von Sydow and Trevor Howard (The Night Visitor, 1971). He also appeared with Max von Sydow (and Liv Ullmann) in Jan Troell’s Oscar-nominated 1972 epic Nybyggarna (The Settlers). Throughout the 1970s and into the 80s Oscarsson continued to appear in prominent European films that brought his skills to a wide audience while sustaining his huge popularity in his native Sweden. In 1973 he wrote, directed and starred in Ebon Lundin, a comedy in which he played a bumbling factory owner with only one day to live. From the 1980s, he began accepting more TV work, including the popular role of police chief Gustav Jorgenson in the crime series Polisen som vägrade ge upp.

Despite his popularity, Oscarsson’s life and career has not been without controversy. In the late 1940s he became a Jehovah’s Witness after previously expressing an interest in Rosicrucianism. In the 70s he also briefly operated as a lay preacher. On the 26^th December 1966, he shocked the Swedish nation by stripping down to his underpants on Laennart Hyland’s popular chat show Hylands hörna.

In 1960 Oscarsson married Baerbel Kraemer, and they had three children, one of whom is the actor Boman Oscarsson. He has since been married several times, once to the actress Gerd Hegnell, with whom he appeared in the TV series Polisen som vägrade ge upp. His last wife was Kia Östling, who worked as his assistant director on the 1980 war comedy Sverige åt svenskarna.

On 31st December 2010, the 83-year-old actor was feared dead when human remains were discovered in the burned-out shell of the home near the remote village of Skara that he shared with his 67-year-old wife.   Six days later, police confirmed that both Oscarsson and his wife had perished in the blaze.