Sven-Bertil Gunnar Evert Taube (24 November 1934 – 11 November 2022) was a Swedish singer and actor. Internationally, he was perhaps better known for his acting career. Taube played Henrik Vanger in the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the lead role in Puppet on a Chain.
Biography
Born in Stockholm on 24 November 1934,[1] he was the son of songwriter Evert Taube[2] and sculptor Astri Taube.[3] At age 14, Taube began playing guitar.[4] While traveling throughout Europe, he developed an interest in folklore and folk music. He performed in concerts on Swedish radio while a student at the Royal Beskow School in Stockholm.[3]
Taube graduated in 1954 from the Cherry Lawn School in Darien, Connecticut.[5] While he was a student at the school, Folkways Records invited him to record an album of Swedish folk songs.[6] From 1959 to 1962, he studied acting at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in Stockholm.[7] In 1969, Taube moved to London where he was active in British theatre.[8]
Taube released his first album in 1954; it included a cover of one of his father's songs.[3] He has since released many albums which include songs written by his father. Several of his most well-known versions of Evert Taube songs come from albums recorded in the 1970s, but he recorded more of them at later stages, including his 2007 album Alderville Road. Referring to that album, reviewer Peter Dahlgren said, "Evert had the yarns and Sven-Bertil had the voice."[12]
He recorded songs from both Fredman's Epistles and Fredman's Songs by the popular Swedish 18th-century songwriter Carl Michael Bellman.[13]Paul Britten Austin wrote in his 1967 biography of Bellman that Sven-Bertil Taube's two Bellman albums (released in 1960 and 1963) "have sold more copies than any other disc, popular or classical, ever released in Sweden".[14] Göran Forsling wrote that Taube helped to start "a new era in Bellman interpretation around 1960", like Fred Åkerström giving the songs "a hitherto unheard earthbound realism".[15]
Taube recorded work by the poet Nils Ferlin (1898–1961), whose poems were mostly put to music by Lille Bror Söderlundh.[16] Taube also recorded an album with songs by the Swedish songwriter and musician Ulf Peder Olrog, one with Swedish translations of songs by French songwriter Léo Ferré, and one with Swedish translations of songs by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis.[17]
In 2015, Taube took part in Så mycket bättre, a reality show broadcast on TV4 in which musical artists attempt to make their own version of other artists' well-known songs.[18]
Tracks: "En liten konstnär", "Den stora kometen", "Vilse", "Goggles", "Inte ens en grå liten fågel", "Får jag lämna några blommor", "På Arendorffs tid", "När skönheten kom till byn", "En valsmelodi", "Stjärnorna kvittar det lika", "På källaren Fimmelstången", "Om våren", "Brådska", "Pulex Irritans människoloppa", "Nasarevalsen", "Som ett ödehus", "Vid diktens port"
Singles: "Intro: Alderville Road", "Bibbi", "Morgon I Ligurien", "Målaren Och Maria Pia", "Vackert Så", "Brittisk Ballad", "Albertina", "Och Skulle Det Så Vara...", "Fragancia", "Linnéa", "Balladen om Gustaf Blom från Borås" [sv], "Sjösalavår", "Här är den sköna sommar" [sv], "Som Stjärnor Små"
Taube also started an acting career that took him to London, where he performed in theater and musicals, notably as Prince Albert in I and Albert.[24]
He won a role on the television series Upstairs, Downstairs. In the 1970s, Taube tried to find work as a film actor, and had some minor roles, most notably in the 1976 World War II drama The Eagle Has Landed[25]
and a starring role as a US agent in the 1971 film version of Alistair MacLean's novel Puppet on a Chain.[26]
During the 1980s and 1990s, Taube starred in a number of Swedish films and television series, while still active as a musician.[7]
^"Peopletalk". The Hour. Vol. 109, no. 56. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Hour Publishing. United Press International. 7 March 1980. p. 23. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
^Straus, Jerry, ed. (1954). The Cherry Pit '54 (yearbook)(PDF). Darien, Connecticut: Cherry Lawn School. p. 6. Archived(PDF) from the original on 15 April 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
^Beckwith, Ethel (13 December 1953). "The Last Word". Sunday Herald. Vol. 67, no. 49. Bridgeport, Connecticut: Bridgeport Herald. p. 17. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
^Dahlgren, Peter (5 December 2010). "Låt oss vakna i Ligurien" [Let us wake up in Liguria]. dagensskiva.com (in Swedish). Peter 2 Meter Media. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010. Evert hade skrönorna och Sven-Bertil hade rösten.
^Britten Austin, Paul (1967). The Life and Songs of Carl Michael Bellman, Genius of the Swedish Rococo. Allhem, Malmö; American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York. p. 180.
^Wright, Adrian. "I and Albert". Record Cabinet. Poringland, Norwich, UK: Adrian Wright. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010. Sven-Bertil Taube is an attractively voiced Albert, but this musical biography is necessarily constructed by the death of its hero half way through the plot.
^ ab"On the Esquire screen". The Southeast Missourian. Cape Girardeau, Missouri: Naeter Bros. Publishing. 26 May 1972. p. 19. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
^"The Guldbagge Award". Swedish Film Institute. Archived by the Wayback Machine. 1 August 2010. Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Archived from the original on 9 March 2010. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
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