Harriet Andersson

Harriet Andersson is a celebrated Swedish actress whose career spanned nearly six decades, beginning as a teenage student at the Calle Flygare stage school and culminating in a celebrated lifetime achievement award at the Stockholm International Film Festival in 2010. Born on 14 February 1932 in Stockholm, she quickly attracted the attention of theater directors and entered professional acting in 1949, a year that also marked her film debut in Playing Truant; her early work displayed a natural affinity for portraying impulsive, working‑class characters who combined vulnerability with fierce independence. In the early 1950s she joined Ingmar Bergman’s troupe at the Malmö stadsteater, and Bergman crafted the iconic title role in Summer with Monika (1953) especially for her, launching her onto the international stage and establishing a lasting professional partnership that produced such classics as Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Cries and Whispers (1972) and Fanny and Alexander (1982). Andersson’s performance in Through a Glass Darkly remains a benchmark for depicting latent schizophrenia, a role that shocked audiences with its raw intensity and theological undertones. Beyond Bergman, she ventured into English‑language cinema, appearing in Sidney Lumet’s The Deadly Affair (1966) and later in Lars von Trier’s minimalist drama Dogville (2003), demonstrating a remarkable adaptability to diverse directorial styles. Her personal life was as colorful as her screen presence: she married Bertil Wejfeldt (1959‑1964) and later Bobo Håkansson (1980‑1982), and she is mother to a daughter, Petra Wejfeldt, born in 1960 and named after her character in Smiles of a Summer Night. Over the years she garnered numerous honors, including the Swedish Guldbagge Award, the Norwegian Amanda, the Venice Film Festival Best Actress prize (1964), a Bodil Award (1968) and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, cementing her legacy as one of Scandinavia’s most influential and enduring cinematic talents.