Mai Zetterling (May 24, 1925-March 17, 1994) is an actress; she was born in Sweden and died in the United Kingdom from cancer, and lived for a time in Australia. She was involved in films in five different decades, from the 1940s through the 1990s. One of her roles was as the grandmother in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's book "The Witches".
External link
Internet Movie Database listing (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0955195/)
MaiZetterling secured her first part at the age of sixteen and won international attention for her role (which she always considered her best) as the prostitute in Hets / Frenzy / Torment (1944), directed by Alf Sjöberg.
Zetterling the actress, with her blonde hair and clear blue eyes, had a graceful femininity, both frail and lively.
As a director, she was sharp, tough and socially uncompromising, creating psychologically complex characters often from an overtly feminist point of view.
Swedish-born MaiZetterling found acting as an escape from an impoverished childhood, and after training at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater School, she made her debut on stage and screen at the age of 16.
Her movie career took over when she was cast as the teenage girl victimized by a sadistic teacher in Torment (1944), a picture directed by Alf Sjoberg that was scripted by Ingmar Bergman, which became a major success among critics all over the world.
Her feature films Loving Couples and Night Games (the latter based on her own novel) established Zetterling as one of the most-respected women filmmakers of her generation, and the fact that her work frequently dealt with issues of special interest to women put her at the forefront of the feminist movement.
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