Alexander Skarsgård

Date of Birth	25 August 1976 , Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
Birth Name	Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård
Nickname	Alex
Height	6' 4½" (1.94 m)

Biography

Sweden may not have a large population but it has gifted the world with bounty of astonishing directors and actors. Greta Garbo, Ingmar Bergman, Max von Sydow and Ingrid Bergman are just the tip of the iceberg of Nordic actors and filmmakers who have enchanted and engaged cinemaphiles across the globe: Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård is poised to join their ranks. As the eldest son of famed actor Stellan Skarsgård, the handsome actor/director comes by his talent honestly; however, Alexander did not grow up in the glitzy world of international cinema.

For most of Alexander's formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor both on stage, TV and in movies but had not yet achieved the international fame that came after his star turn in Breaking the Waves (1996). Young Alexander was raised under modest circumstances in a working-class Swedish neighborhood as his parents wanted their children to have as normal an upbringing as possible. He began his acting career at the age of eight and continued working in films and on Swedish television until he turned sixteen and decided acting was not the career for him. Life under a microscope lost its charm and perhaps due to the influence of My Skarsgård, his physician mother, he stopped working as an actor to continue his education.