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Lena Olin
Olin in 2015
Born	Lena Maria Jonna Olin (1955-03-22) 22 March 1955 (age 69) Stockholm, Sweden
Education	Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1976–present
Spouse	Lasse Hallström ​(m. 1994)​
Children	2
Parent(s)	Britta Holmberg Stig Olin

Lena Maria Jonna Olin (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈlêːna ʊˈliːn] ; born 22 March 1955) is a Swedish actress. She has received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Mentored by filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, she made her screen debut with a small role in his film Face to Face (1976). After graduating from drama school, Olin joined the Royal Dramatic Theatre, followed by roles in Bergman's films Fanny and Alexander (1982) and After the Rehearsal (1984). She made her international breakthrough in the role of a free-spirited artist in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), which earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.

Olin garnered further critical acclaim for her portrayals of a traumatized Holocaust survivor in the dramedy Enemies, A Love Story (1989), based on the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and an abused wife in the comedy-drama Chocolat (2000), for which she received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Her other film roles include The Adventures of Picasso (1978), Havana (1990), Romeo Is Bleeding (1993), Mr. Jones (1993), The Ninth Gate (1999), Queen of the Damned (2002), Casanova (2005), The Reader (2008), Remember Me (2010), Maya Dardel (2017), and The Artist's Wife (2019).

On television, Olin starred as KGB agent Irina Derevko on the spy thriller Alias (2002–2006), which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Her other television roles include the sitcom Welcome to Sweden (2014–2015), the drama series Riviera (2017–2020), and the drama series Hunters (2020–2023).

Early life

Olin was born March 22, 1955, in Stockholm, Sweden, the youngest of three children of actors Britta Holmberg (1921–2004) and Stig Olin (1920–2008). She studied acting at Sweden's National Academy of Dramatic Art from 1976 to 1979.

In October 1974, at age 19, Olin was crowned Miss Scandinavia in Helsinki, Finland.

Olin worked as a substitute teacher, and as a hospital nurse, before becoming an actress.

Film career

Olin performed for over a decade with Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre-ensemble (1980–1994) in plays by William Shakespeare and August Strindberg, and appeared in smaller roles of several Swedish films directed by Bergman and in productions of Swedish Television's TV-Theatre Company.

Ingmar Bergman cast Olin in Face to Face (1976). A year later, she began acting at the national stage in Stockholm in productions directed by Bergman, and with Bergman's production of King Lear (in which Olin played Cordelia) she toured the world, including Paris, Berlin, New York, Copenhagen, Moscow, and Oslo. Critically acclaimed stage performances by Olin at Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre included the leading part as The Daughter in A Dream Play by Strindberg, Margarita in the stage adaptation of The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters, Ann in Edward Bond's Summer, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, the title role in Ingmar Bergman's rendition of Strindberg's Miss Julie, and her neurotic Charlotte in the contemporary drama Nattvarden (The Last Supper) by Lars Norén.

In 1980, Olin was one of the earliest winners of the Ingmar Bergman Award, initiated in 1978 by the director himself, who was also one of the two judges.

Olin's international debut in film was a small role in Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1980), with Bergman later casting her in her first international lead role, After the Rehearsal (1984). In 1988, Olin starred with Daniel Day-Lewis in her first major part in an English speaking and internationally produced film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, followed by Sydney Pollack's Havana (1990), Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate (1999), and others.

In 1989, Olin nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her work in Enemies: A Love Story, in which she portrayed the survivor of a Nazi death camp. In 1994 Olin starred in Romeo Is Bleeding.

Olin and director Lasse Hallström collaborated on the film Chocolat (2000), which received five Academy Award nominations, and worked together again on Casanova (2005).

In 2002, Olin appeared in her first American television role, joining the main cast of Alias for its second season, playing the role of Irina Derevko. For her work on the series, Olin was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2003. She left the show after one season, reprising Derevko for the season four two-part finale, returned for two season five mid-season appearances and again for the season five series finale.

In 2005, Olin returned to Sweden for a brief period of filming and starred in a supporting role in Danish director Simon Staho's film, Bang Bang Orangutang.

In 2008, Olin appeared in the Oscar-nominated film The Reader, playing a Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz death march at a trial in the 1960s, and as the woman's daughter twenty years later.

Between 2014 and 2015, Olin starred in Swedish sitcom Welcome to Sweden.

Olin starred in the US-Polish independent drama film Maya Dardel in 2017.

Personal life

Olin has a son, August, from a relationship with actor Örjan Ramberg. Since 1994, she has been married to filmmaker Lasse Hallström, with whom she has a daughter, Tora. They reside in Bedford, New York.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

1. "Olin, Lena 1955–". www.encyclopedia.com.
2. LENA OnLINe :: Press Archive. Retrieved from http://lena-olin.org/articles.php?read=archive/0001 Archived 27 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
3. Insight Guides Sweden (Travel Guide eBook). APA. 2016. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-78671-545-6.
4. ^ Kurtz, Howard (18 January 1990). "Stockholm's Smoldering Star". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
5. "Lena Olin | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
6. "Lena Olin". Swedish Film Institute. 8 March 2014. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014.
7. Ingmar Bergman Prize Archived 7 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 18 October 2011
8. "Nominees/Winners". Television Academy. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
9. Lauren Viera. "Lena Olin expertly playing different roles". NewsOK.
10. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "LENA OLIN ANS INTERVIEW THE READER". YouTube.
11. "Welcome to Sweden | TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
12. "SXSW Film Festival Announces 2017 Lineup". Variety. 31 January 2017.
13. Hipes, Patrick (22 June 2017). "Samuel Goldwyn & Orion Acquire SXSW Pic 'Maya Dardel'".
14. Kaufman, Joanne (12 May 2020). "Lena Olin's Real Obsession". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
15. "The Dish: Lena Olin, daughter Tora, seen on The Avenue". GreenwichTime. 5 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
16. Moore, Roger (13 January 2001). "'CHOCOLAT' ROLE SWEETEST IN YEARS FOR OLIN". chicagotribune.com. Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
17. "Train Driver's Diary wins at Prague Independent Film Festival". Prague TV.
18. "PIFF 2017 Winners". PIFF.
19. "The Artist's Wife | Celsius Entertainment | London | Film Sales".
20. Szalai, Georg (3 January 2024). "'Pennyworth' Star Jack Bannon, Douglas Henshall Join Lasse Hallström-Directed Series 'The Darkness'". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 January 2024.

External links

• Lena Olin at IMDb 

• 1955 births
• 20th-century Swedish actresses
• 21st-century Swedish actresses
• Actresses from Stockholm
• Living people
• Swedish beauty pageant winners
• Swedish emigrants to the United States
• Swedish film actresses
• Swedish stage actresses
• Swedish television actresses