Bengt Ekerot

Bengt Ekerot, born Nils Bengt Folke Ekerot on 8 February 1920 in Stockholm, Sweden, was a versatile Swedish actor and stage director whose career spanned the tumultuous years of World War II and the golden age of Swedish cinema. He first appeared on screen in 1940, taking minor roles in productions such as They Staked Their Lives and Hanna in Society, and quickly became a reliable character actor noted for his intensity and striking presence. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he worked with a range of directors, but his most iconic collaboration emerged with the legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. In Bergman's 1957 masterpiece The Seventh Seal, Ekerot delivered a chilling performance as Death, a figure cloaked in black, his white clown‑like mask a joint artistic decision that has since become one of the most unforgettable images in film history. The actor’s nuanced portrayal combined an eerie calm with a subtle humanity, embodying Bergman's existential themes. Two years later he appeared as the ailing vaudevillian Johan Spegel in The Magician (1958), further demonstrating his ability to shift between grotesque and tender tones. Beyond his film work, Ekerot was an accomplished stage director; in 1956 he staged the world premiere of Eugene O'Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in Sweden, a production praised for its fidelity to the playwright’s vision. His directing style emphasized psychological depth, a trait that mirrored his own acting methodology. However, Ekerot’s personal life was marked by self‑destructive habits; excessive smoking and drinking led to chronic health problems that curtailed his later career. He married twice—first to Antoinette Gram in 1946 and later to opera singer Margareta Hallin in 1959—though neither marriage produced children. Ekerot’s battle with lung cancer ended his life prematurely on 26 November 1971 in his native Stockholm, leaving behind a legacy defined by one of cinema’s most iconic personifications of mortality.