Known for Narration Siblings Gertrud Zetterholm Movies The Man from Majorca | Role TV Personality Name Hans Villius | |
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Born July 10, 1923 Kalmar, Sweden Occupation Docent at Lund University 1952-57
Sveriges Radio 1957-66
Head of the cultural editorial 1963-66
Sveriges Television 1966-96
Manager of the documentary history section 1966-??
TV2 1969-87
Kanal 1 1987-96
Also: Writer, historican and documentary filmmaker Title Doctor of Philosophy - 1951
Title of Professor (Swedish: Professors namn) - 1996 Relatives Gertrud Zetterholm, sister.
Sara Villius, granddaughter.
Finn Zetterholm, nephew. Awards H. M. The King's Medal of the 8th size - 2012
Royal Order of the Seraphim's Ribbon - 2012 Died June 22, 2012, Taby, Sweden Spouse Elsa Villius (m. 1952–2012) Parents Emil Villius, Anna Villius Education Lund University, Licentiate, PhD | ||
Hans Emil Villius (10 July 1923 – 22 June 2012) was a Swedish historian and popular TV and radio personality.
Villius received his doctorate in history in 1951 with his dissertation Karl XII:s ryska fälttåg: Källstudier ("Charles XII's Russian campaign: A Source Study.") in which he critically analysed the narrative sources of Charles XII's officers during the campaign. In 1957 Villius joined Swedish Radiotjänst (now Sveriges Radio, Sweden's national public radio corporation) and began making popular historical documentaries and programming until he moved to Sveriges Television (SVT) in 1966. It was at SVT that Villius began working with TV-producer Olle Häger, a very productive collaboration that would span some two decades. During the 1980s and 90s, Häger and Villius produced several popular documentaries like Fyra dagar som skakade Sverige ("Four days that shook Sweden") in 1988 about the Swedish "Midsummer Crisis" during WW II and Raoul Wallenberg - fånge i Sovjet ("Raoul Wallenberg - prisoner in the Soviet Union.") as well as one of SVT's biggest and most popular documentary productions ever, Hundra Svenska År ("One Hundred Swedish years"), consisting of eight one-hour documentaries on the history of Sweden during the 20th century from many different perspectives.
Other than his dedication to entertaining and educating, Villius was most famous for his narrating both his own and others' documentaries, and his soft Kalmar-accent is instantly recognizable to millions of Swedes (even to those who do not know his name). He also played the Minister of Justice in the thriller The Man from Majorca. His voice has almost become a concept of its own, intimately associated with serious educational programming and spawning many parodies (e.g., in TV-commercials) and imitations among comedians.
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