Swedish actor and musician Björn Andrésen, who rose to prominence as a teenager in "Death in Venice" (1971), has died at age 70.
Kristian Petri, filmmaker and co-director of "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World," confirmed his death to newspaper Dagens Nyheter. No cause of death was given.
Andrésen was 15 when Italian director Luchino Visconti cast him as Tadzio in "Death in Venice," based on Thomas Mann's 1912 novella.
The film, about an aging composer's infatuation with a young boy, pushed Andrésen into the spotlight.
At the film's premiere, Visconti described him as "the most beautiful boy in the world," a label that would follow Andrésen throughout his life and career, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
In a 2003 interview with The Guardian, Andrésen spoke candidly about the negative impact of the film, and the way fame shaped his youth.
He recalled that Visconti once took him, at age 16, to a gay nightclub in Paris, where he felt objectified and exposed.
"The waiters at the club made me feel very uncomfortable. They looked at me uncompromisingly as if I was a nice meaty dish," he said at the time.
"I knew I couldn't react. It would have been social suicide."
"But it was the first of many such encounters," said Andrésen.
Following the release of "Death in Venice," Andrésen said Visconti never contacted him again.
The actor later reflected on the toll of being defined by a single role.
"I felt like an exotic animal in a cage," he told The Guardian.
In a separate interview, he said the film "screwed up my life quite decently."
Beyond acting, Andrésen was an accomplished pianist and performed with the Swedish dance band Sven Erics.
He also gained popularity in Japan as a pop singer during the 1970s.
Over his career, he appeared in more than 30 film and television productions, including a brief role in Ari Aster's 2019 film "Midsommar."
Andrésen's life was marked by personal tragedy.
His father died in an accident when he was young, and his mother died by suicide when he was 10.
He later had two children with his former wife, poet Susanna Roman. Their son died of sudden infant death syndrome at nine months, an event that Andrésen said led him into depression and alcohol abuse.
In 2021, Petri and Kristina Lindström released "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World," a documentary exploring Andrésen's life and struggles.
The film premiered at Sundance and won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize.
Petri remembered Andrésen as a "brave person."
"Kristina and I had long talked about wanting to make a full-length film about Björn," he told Dagens Nyheter.
"The idea was that he would tell his story himself, and we talked to him for a whole year before we started filming. Then we filmed for several years — and it was both a fun and, at times, painful shoot."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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