Alexander Skarsgård
Birthdate – August 25, 1976 (47 Years Old)
Birthplace – Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
Tall, blonde, and handsome, Alexander Skarsgård (birthname: Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård) is one of the most striking actors to reach the big screen after making powerful impressions on cable series, particularly HBO’s miniseries Generation Kill (2008) and the cabler’s multi-season hit show, on vampires and humans comingling in the Deep South, True Blood.
After these pair, Skarsgård’s movie stock rose considerably. He appeared alongside father Stellan, Kirsten Dunst, Kiefer Sutherland, and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011), which landed in the main competition of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
He appeared opposite Julianne Moore in Scott McGehee’s and David Siegel’s marital drama, What Maisie Knew (2012); followed by the ensemble drama (with Jason Bateman, Andrea Riseborough, and Hope Davis), Disconnect (2012); the drama, The Giver (2013), with Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, and Taylor Swift; Marielle Heller’s acclaimed The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015) with Bel Powley, Kristen Wiig, and Christopher Meloni; reuniting with Riseborough for Matt and Ross Duffer’s thriller, Hidden (2015).
Alexander Skarsgård resumed his role as Adam from Ben Stiller’s Zoolander (2001)—which marked the actor’s American debut—in Zoolander 2 (2016), but his star profile was raised in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), in which he played the King of the Jungle—and the first to do so without a loincloth. His busy big-screen run went unabated in upcoming years, including Kim Nguyen’s thriller, The Hummingbird Project (2018) with Jesse Eisenberg and Salma Hayek; Jeremy Saulnier’s Netflix adventure-thriller, Hold the Dark (2018) with Jeffrey Wright and Riley Keough;
Alexander Skarsgård has stayed true to his American roots in quality cable with AMC’s limited series adaptation of John Le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl (2018) with Florence Pugh and Michael Shannon and guesting in the 2021 season of HBO’s standout corporate family saga, Succession; as well as playing nefarious heavies in HBO’s Big Little Lies (2017-2019, with Nicole Kidman, and the CBS mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand (2020-2021).
He was part of the distinguished ensemble in Rebecca Hall’s critical triumph, Passing (2021), with Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, and Andre Holland. He played second-fiddle to the big monsters in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), with whom he played opposite his Passing director, Hall. Possibly Alexander Skarsgård’s biggest role to date happened in 2022, as the Viking prince Amleth, in Robert Eggers’ Norse saga, The Northman, with Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Björk, and Ethan Hawke. His next project is starring in Brandon Cronenberg’s horror-thriller Infinity Pool.
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Personal Details
Alexander Skarsgård was born in the Swedish capital of Stockholm to actor Stellan Skarsgård and his physician mother, My Skarsgård, who are divorced. He belongs to a prominent Swedish acting family, with three other actor brothers–Bill, Gustaf, and Valter Skarsgård—plus Sam and Eija, and two half-brothers from Stellan’s second marriage.
His stepmother is screenwriter Megan Everett-Skarsgård. After military conscription in the Swedish Armed Forces, he attended Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K., then transferred to Marymount Manhattan College in New York City to study acting. This confirmed his professional choice of acting, although Skarsgård had considered architecture. Skarsgård is unmarried and has no children; he has been in relationships with Kate Bosworth and Alexa Chung. His height is 6’ 4 ½”.
Filmography
Godzilla vs. Kong
Nathan Lind (2021)
The Northman
Amleth (2022)
The Hummingbird Project
Anton Zaleski (2019)
Infinity Pool
James Foster (2023)
The Aftermath
Stephen Lubert (2019)
Long Shot
Prime Minister James Steward (2019)
Some Facts About Alexander Skarsgård
Ex-Kid Star: Alexander Skarsgård was on the verge of being a child star in Sweden at age 13 but quit acting for over seven years since, as he explains it, the growing celebrity attention was becoming uncomfortable for him.
Adventurer: Alexander Skarsgård led the U.S. team in a fundraising trek to the South Pole for the non-profit “Walking with the Wounded,” racing against Prince Harry’s U.K. team and actor Dominic West’s Canadian squad. Each team eventually joined up and reached the Pole.
Video Star: Skarsgård appears with Lady Gaga in her hit video, “Paparazzi.”
He’s Sexy, And He Knows It: Skarsgård has been voted Sweden’s sexiest man five times.
Stephen King Connection: Alexander Skarsgård and his brother Bill have both played arch-nemeses in Stephen King adaptations—Bill as Pennywise in It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), Alexander as Randall Flagg in The Stand (2020-2021).
Awards
SELECT HONORS: Winner, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie, Emmy Awards (2017); Winner, Best Supporting Actor—Series, Miniseries or Television Film, Golden Globes Awards (2018); Winner, Best Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2018).
