Mai Elisabeth Zetterling (; 24 May 1925 – 17 March 1994) was a Swedish film director, novelist and actress.
Early life
Zetterling was born in
Västerås
Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...
, Sweden to a
working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
family.
She started her career as an actor at the age of 17 at the
Royal Dramatic Theatre, the Swedish national theatre, appearing in war-era films.
Career
Zetterling appeared in film and television productions spanning six decades from the 1940s to the 1990s. Her breakthrough as an actress came in the 1944 film ''
Torment'' written for her
by
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...
, in which she played a controversial role as a tormented shopgirl. Shortly afterwards, she moved to England and gained instant success there with her title role in
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden (born Basil Clive Dear; 1 January 1911 – 23 March 1971) was an English film director.
Early life
Dearden was born as Basil Clive Dear at 5 Woodfield Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex to Charles James Dear, a steel manufacturer, and the ...
's ''
Frieda'' (1947), playing opposite
David Farrar.
After a brief return to Sweden, in which she worked with Bergman again in his film ''
Music in Darkness'' (1948), she returned to Britain and starred in a number of UK films. Some of her notable films as an actress include ''
Quartet'' (1948), a film based on some of
W. Somerset Maugham's short stories, ''
The Romantic Age'' (1949) directed by
Edmond T. Gréville, ''
Only Two Can Play'' (1962) co-starring
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...
and directed by
Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat (15 February 1908 – 31 May 1994) was an English film director, producer and writer.
In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) for Alfred Hitchcock, and '' Nig ...
, and ''
The Witches'' (1990), an adaptation of
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British author of popular children's literature and short stories, a poet, screenwriter and a wartime Flying ace, fighter ace. His books have sold more than 300 million copies ...
's book directed by
Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg ( ; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing ''Performance (film), Performance'' (1970), ''Walkabout (film), Walkabout'' (1971), ''Don't Look Now'' (1973) ...
. Having gained a reputation as a
sex symbol in dramas and thrillers, she was equally effective in comedies, and was active in British television in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1960, she appeared in ''
Danger Man
''Danger Man'' (retitled ''Secret Agent'' in the United States for the revived series, and ''Destination Danger'' and ''John Drake'' in other overseas markets) is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again ...
'' as Nadia in the episode "The Sisters".
She began directing and publishing novels and non-fiction in the early 1960s, her films starting with political documentaries and a short film titled ''The War Game'' (1963), which was nominated for a
BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
award, and won a Silver Lion at Venice, both for the Best Short Film. Her directorial feature film debut ''
Älskande par'' (1964, "Loving Couples"), based on the novels of
Agnes von Krusenstjerna, caused a scandal at the
1965 Cannes Film Festival for its sexual explicitness and nudity.
Kenneth Tynan of ''The Observer'' later called it "one of the most ambitious debuts since ''
Citizen Kane
''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...
''". It was not the only film she made that caused controversy for its frank sexuality.
When critics reviewing her debut feature stated that "Mai Zetterling directs like a man", she began to explore feminist themes more explicitly in her work. ''
The Girls'', which had an all-star Swedish cast that included
Bibi Andersson and
Harriet Andersson, discussed women's liberation (or lack thereof) in a society controlled by men, as the protagonists compare their lives to characters in the play ''
Lysistrata'', and find that things have not progressed very much for women since ancient times. In 1966, she appeared as a storyteller on the BBC children's programme ''
Jackanory
''Jackanory'' was a BBC children's television series which was originally broadcast between 1965 and 1996. It was designed to stimulate an interest in Reading (activity), reading. The programme was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, and the ...
'', and in
five episodes narrated
Tove Jansson's ''Finn Family Moomintroll''.
Personal life

Zetterling was married to Norwegian actor
Tutte Lemkow from 1944 to 1953. They had a daughter, Etienne and a son, Louis, who is professor of environmental
sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
at the
Autonomous University of Barcelona
The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain.
, the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...
. She published an
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...
, ''All Those Tomorrows''. From 1958 to 1979, she was married to British author
David Hughes, who collaborated with her on her first films as director.
Documents at the National Archives in London show that, as a member of the
Hollywood Left, she was watched by
MI5 as a suspected
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
. It did not hamper her career, however.
Death
On 17 March 1994, a year after her final role on television, Zetterling died from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
at her home in London. She was 68 years old.
Filmography
As Director
As Actor
Works
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*
References
Further reading
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External links
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Biographical Dictionary of Swedish WomenMai Zetterlingat
Encyclopedia.com
''Encyclopedia.com'' is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information, images, and videos from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works.
History
The website was launched by Infonautics in March 1998. Infonautics w ...
Mai Zetterlingat
Nordic Women In FilmMai Zetterlingat
Britannica''Mai Zetterling'' ArchivesMai Zetterlingat ''Nationalencyklopedins Internettjänst''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zetterling, Mai
1925 births
1994 deaths
Actors from Västerås
Swedish film actresses
Swedish film directors
Deaths from cancer in England
20th-century Swedish actresses
Swedish stage actresses
Swedish television actresses
Swedish television directors
Actresses from London
Swedish expatriates in England
Swedish women film directors
20th-century English actresses