Happy Birthday to Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt, who is 51 today!
Via IMDB
Mikael plays one of the most exciting characters in The Hobbit movies, the man/bear skin-changer, Beorn. Peter Jackson says, “The story definitely has a lot of Beorn in the second and third movie. Mikael is a fantastic actor, absolutely wonderful… He is so good. Beorn’s the kind of character you want to write more material for,” and Andy Serkis describes him as “awesome” and says he was very bold and brave in the scenes Andy directed.
Mikael was born in Jakobsberg in 1963. In 1983 he began to train as a ballet dancer with the Academy of Ballet and the Opera’s Ballet School, where he stayed for a year and a half. His real break into acting came when he met author and director Stig Larrson, who offered him a role in a TV comedy.
Mikael is a popular stage, TV and film actor with many roles to his credit including that of police officer Gunvald Larson in the Martin Beck TV series. He won the Silver Hugo Award for best ensemble acting for Day and Night (2004), the Guldbagge award for best actor for Everlasting Moments (2009) and was awarded the Ingmar Bergman award, 2004.
In addition to The Hobbit Mikael’s latest films are The Salvation and Someone You Love.
Here’s wishing Mikael a very Happy Birthday from everyone at Middle-earth News.
