Eva Dahlbeck

Biography

Eva Dahlbeck (8 March 1920 – 8 February 2008) was a Swedish actress and author. Eva Dahlbeck was born in Saltsjö-Duvnäs near Stockholm. She attended the prestigious acting school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (in Swedish: Dramatens elevskola) from 1941 to 1944, and acted on the Theatre's stage from 1944 to 1964. She made her film debut in the role of Botilla in Rid i natt! in 1942. Among her most notable roles in Swedish films were the shrewd celebrity reporter Vivi in Kärlek och störtlopp (1946), the working-class mother Rya-Rya in the drama Bara en mor (1949); Mrs. Larsson, the warmhearted mother of seven in the popular children's film Kastrullresan (1950), and the young primary school teacher in Gustaf Molander's Trots (1952) (screenplay by Vilgot Sjöman). In the mid-1950s Dahlbeck was one of Sweden's most popular and successful actresses. She became internationally known for her strong female leads in a number of Ingmar Bergman's films, in particular his comedies Secrets of Women (1952), A Lesson in Love (1954) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). In the 1960s Dahlbeck moved away from acting as she started to write. She retired from the stage in 1964 and made her final appearance on screen in the Danish film Tintomara, released in 1970). She published several novels and poems in her native Sweden, and wrote the screenplay for Arne Mattsson's dark film Yngsjömordet (The Yngsjö murder) in 1966. Dahlbeck married Sven Lampell, an air force officer, in 1944. The marriage produced two children. She lived out the last years of her life in Hässelby Villastad, Stockholm, where she died at age 87.

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