Thommy Berggren

Thommy Berggren (born Tommy William Berggren; 12 August 1937) is a Swedish actor. He was a frequent collaborator of director Bo Widerberg, and was primarily active between the early 1960s and mid-2000s.

Early life Tommy William Berggren was born on 12 August 1937, in Mölndal, Sweden, an impoverished working class district on the country's west coast. His father, William Berggren, was a sailor by trade and a socialist involved with the worker's rights movement in Sweden. His mother was employed at the local factory and was similarly politically inclined. When he was born, he suffered with a disease of the lungs, which caused him to have to stay in a hospital facility for one year.

Berggren's father supported and encouraged his son's career choice as an actor. Believing that acting and the theatre were "immaterial", he encouraged his son to be "a better actor than the rest".

In 1959, he was engaged as a regular player at the Gothenburg City Theatre, where he worked until 1961, when he was granted a position with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. In his first role there, he portrayed Nick in Ingmar Bergman's production of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He later directed plays at the Stockholm City Theatre, including August Strindberg's Miss Julie and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Film and television In 1961, Berggren made his film debut in Pärlemor. The next year, he met aspiring director Bo Widerberg, who became his good friend and one of his most frequent collaborators. Like Berggren, Widerberg strongly believed that films needed to focus on human relationships, have a greater political significance, and be socially conscious. As early as 1960, Berggren declared in an interview that he only wanted to do films that he could truly stand for, to play people who developedan attitude he has maintained through the years.

The film was based upon the real life romance of Lt. Sixten Sparre and the circus performer Elvira Madigan. In 1889, the pair willfully abandoned their respective lives for each other, but after spending a brief time in Denmark, the couple exhausted their limited finances and the doomed relationship ended in suicide. Widerberg shot the film on a low budget, in natural light and without a script, allowing the actors to improvise freely and to take their time delivering their dialogue. His desire was to make the film appear as if it were a documentary of the couple's romance. His desire to portray outsiders in society remained apparent in his choice of film roles, from 1975's Giliap, in which he portrays a waiter with a longing to escape his life, to 1986's Gosta Berlings Saga where his role was that of an alcoholic clergyman.

Personal life Berggren lives in Stockholm, Sweden, in Djurgården. Berggren does not wish to be a part of any film which glorifies violence. In an interview with the publication Expressen, Berggren noted that class struggle had been one of the strongest driving forces in his work, stating, "It is with me and it is within Persbrandt and it was in Strindberg. We're working boys."

Awards Berggren won the award for Best Actor in the 3rd Guldbagge Awards for his performance in Heja Roland!, and the award for Best Supporting Actor in the for his performance in The Glassblower's Children. He was also nominated for Best Actor in the 28th Guldbagge Awards for his performance in Sunday's Children. He won the Worker's Festival Prize (Czechoslovakia) for the film Joe Hill.

Selected filmography