Johanna Maria Ellinor Berglund-Sällström (30 December 1974 – 13 February 2007) was a Swedish actress, best known for her portrayal of Linda Wallander in '' Wallander''. She worked as an actress for more than 15 years, before her death in 2007.

Early life

Sällström was born in Stockholm. She was the stepdaughter of

Björn Gedda Björn Roger Gedda (born 3 March 1942 in Solna, but grew up in Boden) is a Swedish actor. He was a stepfather to actress Johanna Sällström. Selected filmography *1977 – '' Den allvarsamma leken'' *1980 – '' Mannen som blev miljonär'' ...

Career

Sällström made her first stage appearance in

Hudiksvall Hudiksvall () is a city and the seat of Hudiksvall Municipality, in Hälsingland, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 15,015 inhabitants in 2010. Hudiksvall is also known as Glada Hudik ( en, Happy Hudik), a term that originated in the 19th century as ...

at the age of 15, in '' A Midsummer Night's Dream''. She became famous in Sweden in the 1990s, after portraying the teenage girl Victoria Bärnsten in the

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

'' Tre kronor''. Thereafter, she appeared in numerous productions, and received a

Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...

for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1997 film ''

Under ytan "Under ytan" ( en, Under the Surface) is a song written by Uno Svenningsson and recorded by him for his debut album as a solo artist, '' Uno'', released in 1994. It was released as a single the same year. The song, which opens with the cello bein ...

''. Later that same year, unable to cope with her new-found celebrity, she took a break from filming and moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, where she worked in a café. In 2000, Sällström returned to Sweden to continue her acting career. She did not enjoy the success of previous years until, in 2005, she played the role of detective constable Linda Wallander in the first season of the Swedish TV series '' Wallander''. Sällström's last role was in an

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, a ...

theatre production of Anton Chekhov's play ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises th ...

'', which she left prematurely due to illness.

Personal life

Sällström married Albin Sällström in 2000; they were divorced in 2002, about a year after the birth of their daughter Talulah. In 2004, Sällström and Talulah experienced the December 2004 tsunami while on holiday in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. Talulah took her own life a week before her 13th birthday on 23 November 2014.

Death

Sällström was found dead in her

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

home on 13 February 2007. She had recently been released from a psychiatric unit where she had been receiving treatment for depression. Her lifelong struggle with depression was exacerbated by her experience in Thailand. In a 2006 interview with the editor of the magazine ''Tove'', she said, "I always thought I would be dead by the age of 30."

Henning Mankell Henning Georg Mankell (; 3February 19485October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number ...

's grief and guilt over her death swayed him from writing the last two novels of his projected Linda Wallander trilogy, and published a final novel focused on Kurt, before his own death in 2015. The character of Linda Wallander did not appear in the second ''Wallander'' series produced for Swedish TV: as another main character had just been written out because of suicide, Linda was "kept" off-screen, but said to be working elsewhere.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sallstrom, Johanna 1974 births 2007 suicides Actresses from Stockholm Female suicides Swedish film actresses Swedish television actresses Swedish television personalities Drug-related suicides in Sweden Best Actress Guldbagge Award winners Swedish child actresses 20th-century Swedish actresses 21st-century Swedish actresses