Björn Andrésen, ‘Death in Venice‘ Star, Dies at 70
björn Andrésen, the Swedish actor who achieved international fame as the captivating Tadzio in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice, has died at the age of 70.
Born in Stockholm in 1955, Andrésen was thrust into the spotlight at age 16 wiht his role in Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella. He later revealed a difficult experience surrounding the film, recounting how Visconti took him to a gay nightclub with a group of men, leaving him feeling “very uncomfortable.” “I knew I couldn’t react. It would have been social suicide. But it was the first of many such encounters,” he said. Andrésen expressed strong criticism of Visconti years later,stating he would have told the director to “fuck off” if he were still alive and that Visconti “didn’t give a fuck” about his feelings,adding: “I’ve never seen so many fascists and assholes as there are in film and theater. Luchino was the sort of cultural predator who would sacrifice anything or anyone for the work.”
Following Death in Venice, Andrésen experienced a period of intense celebrity in Japan, becoming a pop star and model, and generating a fervent fan base. “You’ve seen the pictures of the Beatles in America?” he told The Guardian in 2003. “It was like that. There was a hysteria about it.”
Despite his early fame, Andrésen’s passions lay in music, and he became a skilled pianist and musician. He continued to act, appearing in over 30 films and television series, primarily in Sweden.He described his career as “chaos” and felt haunted by the role of Tadzio into adulthood,noting,”My career is one of the few that started at the absolute top and then worked its way down,” and that it was “lonely.”
in 2003,Andrésen publicly objected to feminist Germaine Greer using a photograph of him on the cover of her book The Stunning Boy without his consent,citing his experiences with Visconti and stating,”Adult love for adolescents is something that I am against in principle. Emotionally perhaps, and intellectually, I am disturbed by it – as I have some insight into what this kind of love is about.” His objections were ultimately dismissed by Greer’s publisher.
Later in his career, Andrésen appeared in Ari Aster’s 2019 horror film Midsommar, embracing a role that involved a violent on-screen death. “being killed in a horror movie is every boy’s dream,” he remarked.
Andrésen had two children with his ex-wife, the poet Suzanna Roman: a daughter, Robine, and a son, Elvin, who died of sudden infant death syndrome at nine months old.
