Kjell Nilsson (born 19 December 1949) is a Swedish

olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

-class

weight lifter Weightlifting (often known as Olympic weightlifting) is a competitive strength athletics, strength sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with the aim of successfully lifting t ...

and actor. His best known role is his 1981 portrayal of "Lord Humungus", the leader of the marauding wasteland gang in ''

Mad Max 2 ''Mad Max 2'' (released as ''The Road Warrior'' in the United States) is a 1981 Australian Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian action film directed by George Miller (filmmaker), G ...

''.

Life and career

Nilsson was a former

-class

who was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1980 to train Swedish athletes for the

Moscow Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

. In Australia, he met actress Kate Ferguson, and they married in Sweden. She persuaded him to return to Australia and to look for work in the

Australian film industry The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'', arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recogni ...

. In the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

action film ''

'' (also known as ''Mad Max: The Road Warrior''), he played the main antagonist "Lord Humungus", the leader of a gang of marauders that

besiege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characte ...

a settler compound in the Australian wastelands. He leads a rag-tag band of biker-berserkers, and he gives speeches to the settlers exhorting them to surrender, while utilizing

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

. ''Time'' magazine's

Richard Corliss Richard Nelson Corliss (March 6, 1944 – April 23, 2015) was an American film critic and magazine editor for ''Time''. He focused on movies, with occasional articles on other subjects. He was the former editor-in-chief of ''Film Comment ...

stated that in Nilsson's portrayal, "malevolence courses through his huge pectorals, ndpulses visibly under his bald, sutured scalp." A year later, he appeared in ''

The Pirate Movie ''The Pirate Movie'' is a 1982 Australian musical romantic comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, and starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol. Loosely based on Gilbert and Sullivan's 1879 comic opera ''The Pirates of Penzance'', the or ...

'' (1982), a musical and comedy film directed by

Ken Annakin Kenneth Cooper Annakin, OBE (10 August 1914 – 22 April 2009) was an English film director. His career spanned half a century, beginning in the early 1940s and ending in 1992, and in the 1960s he was noticed by critics with large-scale advent ...

and starring

Christopher Atkins Christopher Atkins Bomann (born February 21, 1961) is an American actor and businessman. He starred in the 1980 film '' The Blue Lagoon'' and played Peter Richards on ''Dallas'' (1983–1984). Early life Christopher Atkins Bomann was born and ...

and

Kristy McNichol Christina Ann McNichol (born September 11, 1962) is an American former actress. Beginning her career as a child actress, she rose to fame in 1976 with her portrayal of teenaged daughter Letitia "Buddy" Lawrence in the TV drama ''Family'' for which ...

. In 1984, he had a role in the TV movie ''

Man of Letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the world of culture, either ...

'', and in 1987, he played the role of a nurse in ''

The Edge of Power ''The Edge of Power'' is a 1987 Australian film directed by Henri Safran.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p49 Cast * Ivar Kants as Peter Mueller * Henri Szeps as Steve Traynor * Anna Maria Mon ...

''.

Filmography

*''

'' (1981) - Lord Humungus *''

'' (1982) - Pirate *''

'' (1987) - Jorma

References

External links

* Living people Swedish emigrants to Australia Swedish male actors Swedish male film actors Swedish male weightlifters 1949 births 20th-century Swedish sportsmen Sportspeople from Gothenburg {{Sweden-film-actor-stub