Gunnar Hellstrom

Publish date: 2024-06-07

Director of 'Bonanza,' 'West Was Won,' 'Dallas'

Actor-director Gunnar Hellstrom, who had successful careers in both Sweden and the U.S., died Nov. 28 from a stroke in Stockholm. He was 73.

In Sweden he was both a director and actor, who especially in the 1950s became very popular with a string of films that allowed him to combine his strengths as an actor with his exotic looks and charisma.

In the U.S., he directed popular series as “Bonanza,” “How the West Was Won” and “Dallas.”

His breakthrough in Sweden came in 1955 with the intense drama “Simon Syndaren,” which he both directed and played the lead in. Two years later he scored again, this time with “Synnove Solbakken,” based on a novel by Bjornstierne Bjornson.

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Interested in working abroad, he had a bit part in an episode of “Gunsmoke” and became friends with star James Arness. The two would later work together again on the skein “How the West Was Won.”

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He very rarely was in front of the camera in the U.S. (feature “Return to Peyton Place” is one of the few exceptions), but instead became an appreciated TV director. The money he made in this allowed him to return to Sweden to realize a couple of projects he had dreamed about doing.

The first was commercial success “Raskenstam” in 1983, which told the story of a legendary womanizer. Hellstrom wrote the script, directed and played the lead against, among others, ABBA member Agnetha Faltskogh. Later he made “Zorn,” based on the life of the Swedish painter Anders Zorn. It became Hellstrom’s last film, but up until his death he had plans for several new films, among them one about the legendary Swedish poet and singer Bellman.

Hellstrom was a charismatic actor, and in a comment Ingmar Bergman says that he thinks he was underappreciated as a director. Liv Ullman, who played the main character’s wife in “Zorn,” told Variety: “He was very good to work with. He was very relaxed and someone who was very good at taking care of all his actors. He was both director and the leading actor, but he still had lots of energy. You could see on him that he really enjoyed being in front of the camera.”

Hellstrom is survived by his three daughters and their families.

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