Jan Malmsjö

Biography

Malmsjö was born in Lund, Sweden. He trained at the prestigious Dramatens elevskola (The Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school) during 1950-53 and one of his first parts on the national stage was as Paris in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1953).

Malmsjö has a great range as an actor from the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet (Dramaten, 1974) and Reverent Manders in Ibsen's Ghosts to Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady and leading roles in other musicals such as La Cage aux Folles and Victor/Victoria. He has also cut several music records in his native Sweden. In the musical world, his Swedish language recording of "Willkommen"; Välkomna till Cabaret (from Malmö City Theatre's successful production of Cabaret 1970; where Malmsjö played the part of Emcee) is considered a masterpiece and treasure on CD.

He has filmed sporadically: one of his most famous film parts is as the Bishop Edvard Vergérus in Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982). One of his more recent stage parts was as The Captain in Strindberg's The Dance of Death in the 1993 Dramaten-production, directed by Lars Norén (adapted for TV in 1996).

He also voiced Lumiere in the Swedish dub of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

Malmsjö is still as active as ever and could last be spotted on stage in the title role of John Gabriel Borkman by Henrik Ibsen at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, spring/autumn 2006.

Jan Malmsjö is married to actress and colleague of the Royal Dramatic Theatre; Marie Göranzon. His son, Jonas Malmsjö, is also an actor (and acted opposite his father in Ingmar Bergman's staging of The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg, in 2000).

In December, 2007, Malmsjö participated in the Swedish reality show Stjärnorna på slottet along with Peter Stormare, Arja Saijonmaa, Britt Ekland and Magnus Härenstam.

Photographs