Victor Sjöström
(09/20/1879 - 01/03/1960)

Victor David Sjöström (Victor Seastrom) undisputedly is the father of Swedish film and ranks as one of the masters of world cinema. His influence lives on in the work of 'Ingmar Bergman" and all those directors, both Swedish and international, influenced by his work and the works of directors whom he himself influenced.

The teenager became an actor and then director. The Swedish motion picture production company Svenska Bio hired him and fellow stage director Mauritz Stiller to helm pictures, and between 1912 and 1915, he directed 31 films. (Only three of the 31 movies still survive. He directed "Ingeborg Holm" (1913), which is considered the first classic of Swedish cinema.

His 1920 film "The Phantom Carriage" (a.k.a. "Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness") was an internationally acclaimed masterpiece, and the Goldwyn Studio hired him to direct "Name the Man' (1924). Sjöström's name was changed to "Victor Seastrom" and he became a major American director, a proto-'David Lean' (QV) who was renowned for balancing artistic expression with a concern for what would play at the box office. The first M.G.M. film was the Lon Chaney melodrama "He Who Gets Slapped" (1924), directed by Seastrom. It was not only a critical success but a huge hit, getting the new studio off onto a sound footing.

In his career he directed 55 films and acted in 44 films from 1912 to 1957.

Available Films

Ingeborg Holm (1913)

The Phantom Carriage (1920)