Per Oscarsson

Early life

Oscarsson was born, along with his twin brother Björn, on 28 January 1927 on Kungsholmen, Stockholm to parents, engineer Einar Oscarsson and Therèse, née Küppers. The twins had two elder siblings. Their mother, who was German, died of cancer in 1933.

Career

Oscarsson was best known for his role as Pontus, a starving writer, in the social realism drama Hunger, based on the Knut Hamsun novel by the same name, a role for which he won the 1966 Bodil, the Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the 1966 Cannes Film Festival best actor awards. His most recent film role was as Holger Palmgren, the character Lisbeth Salander's publicly appointed guardian, in the 2009 movies The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, based on Stieg Larsson's famous novels.

Death

A fire started in the house of Per Oscarsson and his wife Kia Östling on the night of 30–31 December 2010. On 31 December, a relative found the house burned to the ground with only the foundations and chimney remaining. Oscarsson had not been heard from since the fire. A body was discovered in the ruins of the house on 2 January 2011, and was presumed by police to be either the body of Oscarsson or that of his wife. A second body was discovered on 3 January, which increased the possibility that both Oscarsson and his wife had perished in the fire. On 5 January, the deaths of Oscarsson and his wife were confirmed through dental records by Swedish police. Oscarsson died four weeks before his 84th birthday.