Stig Olin(1920-2008)
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
A distinguished actor, director and composer in Sweden; Stig Olin made
his success in many areas of the Swedish entertainment business in the
1940s and 50s. As an actor, he claimed success when he played boyish
characters and naive students on film. He was the actor who eventually
took the claim of playing
Ingmar Bergman's alter-ego in many of his
early films, including; Torment (1944)
(Bergman's script debut), Crisis (1946),
Woman Without a Face (1947)
(Bergman wrote the script),
Port of Call (1948),
Prison (1949),
To Joy (1950) and
Summer Interlude (1951). Stig Olin then went
on to directing some films himself in the 1950s: he not only wrote film
scripts but also directed these films himself, as well. As a director,
his best film is probably his on-screen adaption of children-novelist
Astrid Lindgren's
Rasmus, Pontus och Toker (1956);
a wonderful classic children's film (very beloved in Sweden) to which
Olin also composed the music score and also acted the substantial
supporting part as the suspicious antique dealer "Ernst", that the kids
in the film come across. Stig Olin then suddenly - quite surprisingly,
actually - (as he'd never been trained specifically in music) showed
his talent as a composer when he came to write many songs (both the
music and the lyrics) that today are considered to be classic
evergreens/tunes/schlagers in Sweden: "På söndag" (On Sunday),
"Karusellvisan" (recorded by himself), "En gång jag seglar i hamn"
(recorded by himself), "Jag tror på sommaren" (recorded by son
Mats Olin) and "Människors glädje" (recorded,
a.o., by his daughter; actress Lena Olin in
the 1970s). Stig Olin sang and performed a lot with his wife at that
time; Britta Holmberg, both on stage and
on the radio (where the Olin-family had their own radio show for many
years in the 1950s and 60s).
On top of this, he also frequently worked at the Swedish Radio with various other shows/programmes and became a very appreciated director for the Swedish Radio Theatre (Radioteatern). In 1970, he became Director of Programmes at Swedish Radio and, from there on, came to work almost exclusively in the radio business in the 1970s and 1980s. Still, he directed several plays and musicals at various private theatres in Stockholm in the 1950s-1980s (including the original Swedish staging of the Stephen Sondheim musical, "A Little Night Music", based on the Ingmar Bergman comedy, "Smiles of a Summer Night") and he has written numerous theatre sketches for all kinds of revues and made the music arrangements for many musicals throughout his life. His best on-screen performances in films include: Torment (1944), Woman Without a Face (1947), To Joy (1950), Summer Interlude (1951), En fästman i taget (1952), Klasskamrater (1952), The Yellow Squadron (1954), Sceningång (1956), Rasmus, Pontus och Toker (1956) and Jim & Piraterna Blom (1987).
On top of this, he also frequently worked at the Swedish Radio with various other shows/programmes and became a very appreciated director for the Swedish Radio Theatre (Radioteatern). In 1970, he became Director of Programmes at Swedish Radio and, from there on, came to work almost exclusively in the radio business in the 1970s and 1980s. Still, he directed several plays and musicals at various private theatres in Stockholm in the 1950s-1980s (including the original Swedish staging of the Stephen Sondheim musical, "A Little Night Music", based on the Ingmar Bergman comedy, "Smiles of a Summer Night") and he has written numerous theatre sketches for all kinds of revues and made the music arrangements for many musicals throughout his life. His best on-screen performances in films include: Torment (1944), Woman Without a Face (1947), To Joy (1950), Summer Interlude (1951), En fästman i taget (1952), Klasskamrater (1952), The Yellow Squadron (1954), Sceningång (1956), Rasmus, Pontus och Toker (1956) and Jim & Piraterna Blom (1987).
