Eva Dahlbeck
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Biography
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Biography
The cool, elegantly beautiful blonde Dahlbeck appeared in films by Gustaf Molander and others from 1942, switching from comedy to drama with apparent ease. A gifted and versatile performer, Dahlbeck gave a landmark performance, spanning from girlish naivete to middle-aged despair, in Alf Sjoberg's powerful tale of a long-suffering rural woman, "Only a Woman" (1949). Outside of Sweden, however, she is perhaps best-known for her finely controlled performances in several Ingmar Bergman films. Her first with the director was "Kvinnors vantan/The Secrets of Women" (released in Sweden in 1952; in the USA in 1961). Although made during Bergman's most fruitful dark period, the film is a light-hearted comedy with Dahlbeck as the other woman in one of the episodes. Dahlbeck is also recalled as Desiree, the actress and former mistress of a lawyer, in Bergman's comedy "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955). She received the Best Actress award at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for her turn as a woman coping with a miscarriage in Bergman's poignant "Brink of Life."
Dahlbeck was a wife watching her husband scheme against Patrick O'Neal in John Cromwell's American-Swedish production "A Matter of Morals" (1960) and was William Holden's wife who rejects him when she assumes he is a spy in "Counterfeit Traitor" (1962). She has also written plays, screenplays, novels and a volume of poetry, "Genom Fonstren" (1963), under the nom de plume Lis Edvardson. Dahlbeck's major screenplay credit was "Woman of Darkness"/Yngsjormordet" (1966), about the last woman executed in Sweden. She stopped working actively in films in 1970.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Life Events
1941
Stage acting debut
1942
Screen acting debut in Gustaf Molander's "Rid i natt/Ride Tonight"
1952
First collaboration with Ingmar Bergman, "Kvinnors Vantan/Secrets of Women"
1957
Won international acclaim as star of "Brink of Night" directed by Bergman
1960
Starred in US/Swedish coproduction, "Matter of Morals"
1962
Made first US film, "Counterfeit Traitor"
1966
First film as screenwriter, Arne Mattson's "Yngsjomordet/Woman of Darkness"
1970
Last film to date, "Tintomara"
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