I recently came across some new photos taken when Michael was in Rome in September 2009 for the premiere of "The Girl Who Played with Fire". The first set was taken during a photo shoot on September 18th and the second set was taken by the Italian paparazzi when they caught sight of him two days later. You'll note his wife Catharina is with him in the last photo.

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Over the holidays Swedish journalist and television moderator Kattis Ahlström did a podcast and shared an unforgettable evening with Michael back in 2005. They were both at the TV gala Kristallen (Crystal), which is equivalent to our Emmy Awards. This first award ceremony was held on September 13, 2005. Kattis had won the award for Presenter of the Year and the movie, "Om Stig Petrés Hemlighet", in which Michael played the lead role, won Best Drama. Celebrating later, the couple danced and Michael ended up trampling her little toe. As the dance continued, the fine glass crystal she had won slipped out of her hand and broke a little. She reported, "I only see it as a little added value because I always think of Micke Nyqvist when I see it and you never want to forget him."

On the occasion of Michael's birthday, November 8th, the ceremony for the presentation of the Michael Nyqvist Foundation Award took place at the Confidencen, a theater in Stockholm. The event was hosted by actresses Ingela Olsson and Pernilla August, both board members. This year the Foundation recognized actress Trine Dyrholm, who was telecast from Denmark where she received her very unattractive award. Obviously, the Swedes are into ugly awards - have you ever seen the Guldbagge?

You may remember this awesome actress from "Du forsvinder" (You Disappear), one of Michael's last films. I have seen her in several other films and she's definitely Denmark's Meryl Streep! In her acceptance speech, Trine mentioned the great joy she had in working with Michael and how they laughed so much that sometimes they had difficulty making it through a scene. She called Michael an amazing actor with a wonderful sense of humor. She said he saw other people and he let other people see him and that he shared from a place deep within him.

Several film clips were shown of Trine's work and you would think they would have included "Du forsvinder" but that was unforgivably omitted for whatever reason.

The ceremony also included two pianists whose selections were absolutely uninspiring, if not irritating especially when there is so much beautiful music to choose from. There was also a strange video with no dialogue of a very young Michael doing some cornball skit with another actor. It seemed rather weird and an inappropriate choice in celebrating a man of such immense artistry and intelligence.

A new photo of Michael has surfaced on the Internet. It shows him with actor Alexander Skarsgård and Cecilia Frode after a lecture at Drömfabriken in Stockholm back in 2004. The photographer is  Nicklas Sandahl Fransson.

There has been no announcement yet from the Michael Nyqvist Foundation as to who the 2020 recipient will be of their annual award. The foundation recognizes an artist in the acting community each year with a ceremony that takes place in Sweden on Michael's birthday, the 8th of November. Perhaps because of the pandemic, no plans have been made for the event.

I'm adding some new photos from March 15, 2015 when Michael was in Munich promoting his TV series "100 Code". In the first photo he's posing with Andrea Vodermayer and, in the rest of that row, he's with German actress Lara Joy Körner.

It was twenty years ago when the comedy TILLSAMMANS (TOGETHER) made its debut in Sweden and in the April 27th edition of the NY Times, journalist Josha Rothkopf writes an article called "Films to Heal a Broken Moment" - These characters find reasons to carry on in the face of hardship or crisis - examples that can help in our own difficult time."

Rothkopf writes, "As endings go, the one invented by the Swedish director Lukas Moodysson for his gentle, unassuming comedy 'Together' is just about perfect. It’s not a spoiler to share it: Already, the members of a 1975 commune have squabbled over everything from eating meat to owning a TV and the need for wearing underwear in the kitchen. Their children, often the most mature people in the room, look on, mortified. One morning after the worst of the infighting has ended, everybody heads outside for a sloppy, impromptu soccer match under a light snowfall — adults and kids, women and men, socialists and materialists. In the chaos of the game, all is forgiven."

"As if this scene weren’t sweet enough, Moodysson adds a little ABBA, the period-specific hit 'SOS,' using its minor-key piano riff and lyrics as a counterpoint to the euphoria: 'Where are those happy days? They seem so hard to find.' Neither Moodysson nor his producers could predict how this climax would play for audiences during the film’s American release — 10 days after Sept. 11. Arriving in theaters during that terrible moment, 'Together' felt like a gift, a reminder of something precious."

"Thinking about Moodysson’s 'Together' made me yearn for tales of resilience, for characters who have been where we are — or somewhere similar — and made their way through a crisis, not only surviving it but arriving at a kind of grace."

I located a few more publicity photos for the 2008 Royal Dramatic Theatre production of "Gustav III". Some are very similar but have different facial expressions. Pictured with Michael is Elin Klinga & Torkel Petersson.

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Here's an awesome piece of digital art!

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In the April 17th issue of Sweden's Aftonbladet, there was an interview with 33-year-old Anastasios Soulis, who starred as Michael's son in both "Hem ljuva hem" and "Underbara älskade".

In the first film in 2001, he plays the object of an abusive father. "Stasse" recalls, "He (Michael) was really mean in the movie. No matter how nice he was before we filmed, he had such an intensity in the scenes. When we had the gala premiere, Michael went up to my parents and said, 'Sorry, what you see is fake. It's not real."

The two reunited in 2006 for another family drama in which they play the mourning father and son after a car accident. Stasse says, "I thought my calling was to become a sports journalist, but that film cemented my desire to invest in acting."

Stasse laments, "Shit, how I miss Micke!" Yes, we all miss him!

It has come to my attention that Michael had an uncredited appearance in a 2015 Swedish comedy called "I nöd eller lust" (aka "For Better and Worse"), directed by Kjell Sundvall. Here are some screen shots from the film, which was released on March 6, 2015.

On March 3, Michael's last film to be released - A HIDDEN LIFE - will be available at Amazon via streaming. Here's a movie still of Michael as Bishop Joseph Fliessen. He looks so pious.

I enjoyed reading this snippet from a film review by Siddhant Adlakha of IGN.com:

It’s sadly fitting that two great actors in the film, Michael Nyqvist and Bruno Ganz, passed before its release, but their presence makes the story feel all the more like a plea from a bygone era. Nyqvist plays a bishop to whom Franz appeals, but his own fears of being outed as an objector prevent him from helping; Franz’s fate can, in theory, be traced to the bishop’s actions, or lack thereof. Meanwhile Ganz, who fittingly played Hitler in Downfall, plays a Nazi judge who sentences Franz. Both characters are participants in an evil machine (passively, and actively), but Malick's interest lies not in their actions as they're perceived in the present, but in how history might judge them — and has.

Both men fear judgment — Ganz’s character, recognizing Franz's spirit, asks him: "Do you judge me? — but neither is willing to act on whatever morality, whatever regrets, whatever rebellious spirit might lie beneath their masks. Their faces are rankled by guilt. Nyqvist's bishop simply walks towards a window to avoid Franz's gaze. Ganz's judge sits down and stares at his aged hands, accepting the weight of his actions and his place in history. Their judgment is worse than Franz's, or even God's; they're left to judge themselves.

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 I recently came across the following three portraits by Jesper Brandt.

On November 8th the annual Michael Nyqvist Foundation Award was given to Swedish actor David Dencik and the Moomsteatern. Dencik actually appeared in both the Swedish and American versions of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" though he took on different roles.

Here is an extra large photo for the Archives that was taken at the Stockholm premiere of "The Girl Who Played with Fire" on September 14, 2009.

Michael's widow Catharina recently wrote an article for "Save Life", the magazine published by Sweden's Cancer Foundation. It was on June 27, 2017, when Michael died of lung cancer at only 56 years old. And now two years later, Catharina looks back over the years that her husband's illness consumed their lives. Before Michael began to film the "100 Code" series back in the spring of 2014, he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. A tumor was discovered and the treatment had been deemed successful with its decrease in size. Michael felt hopeful and was eager to go abroad and begin filming.

However, on a return visit to the doctor, they were told that the cancer had mutated. Catharina describes hospital visits as stepping into another world. Michael does not want to meet anyone he knows, absolutely does not want to be recognized. He stares at the floor. Every visit feels like a doomsday.

Chemotherapy began and a whole plethora of medicines filled their bathroom, so many that Catharina called it "The Apothecary". She describes the powerlessness she felt about not being able to share the disease with her husband. The feeling of injustice. And the anxiety about sitting in the waiting room at the hospital in what felt like hours.

She recalled that when they got married, the priest had told them that they should bear each other's burdens. They thought it was so beautiful, something to be reminded of, a call that gave them strength. She writes, "We chose to live here and now and decided to do everything together. So the illness period became one of the most beautiful in our lives."

In the last three years of Michael's life, he participated in two television series and ten films. Wow! He certainly persevered!

Sadly, I have to report that Michael's scenes in "The Command" (previously titled "Kursk") were left on the floor of the editing room. The photos below show him in his uniform as Colonel Nesterov. The IMDB continues to include him in the cast as well as hundreds of other movie web sites. This error should be corrected.

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Here are some new movie stills from the 2016 Pernilla August film DEN ALLVARSAMMA LEKEN (A Serious Game) for which Michael won a Guldbagge for Best Supporting Actor. He had such a kind face though the Americans cast him too often as a baddie.

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And a lovely photo of the trio who made MOTHER OF MINE such a beautiful film - Actress Maria Lundqvist, Director Klaus Härö and Michael.

Terrence Malick's A HIDDEN LIFE, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, will hit theaters in the US on December 13, 2019. In France the release date is set for December 11 and it will be screened in UK theaters on January 17, 2020. Fox Searchlight made waves at Cannes when the distributor purchased the rights to the film for a reported $14 million, beating out the likes of A24, Netflix, and others. Clearly, this is the film that everyone has on their mind as an early awards-season favorite.

Today sadly marks the two year anniversary of the shocking news that our beloved Michael had passed away. I have added a page to the Archives devoted to his death and funeral at this link.

Archive Updates:

2019: January, February, March, April/May
2018: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

2017: April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December