Birthday Quote

Rolf Åke Mikael Nyqvist (8th November 1960 – 27th June 2017), better known as Michael Nyqvist, was a Swedish actor.

As a young child, he was adopted from an orphanage. At age 17, he spent a year as an exchange student in Omaha, Nebraska. He took his first acting classes there, as a senior in high school; he played, amongst other things, a small part in the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. When he returned to Sweden, he was accepted at ballet school, but gave it up after one year. An ex-girlfriend suggested he try theatre instead, and at 24 he was accepted to the Malmö Theatre Academy.

He became well known for playing Police Officer Banck in the first series of Martin Beck films made in 1997, and later for his leading role in the film Grabben i graven bredvid in 2002.

He was most recognized internationally for his role in the acclaimed Millennium Series as Mikael Blomkvist, as well as the lead villains in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (as Kurt Hendricks) and John Wick (as Viggo Tarasov). In 2004, he played the leading role in the Academy Award-nominated Best Foreign Film As It Is in Heaven.

Nyqvist described his childhood and his quest as an adult to find his biological parents in his autobiographical novel, Just After Dreaming (Swedish title: När barnet lagt sig). In 1990, he married the Finnish scenographer Catharina Ehrnrooth (born 1969). They had two children, Ellen (born 1991) and Arthur (born 1996).

Nyqvist died from lung cancer on 27th June 2017 in Stockholm. He was 56.

"I think the whole mission of being here on Earth is to accept what you have, and my journey was to accept my own life and not pretend anything else. I think that's what we all struggle with"

Michael Nyqvist

"Oh."

As Viggo Tarasov, on hearing that his son had stolen John Wick's car and killed his dog.

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