Early life

Nyqvist was born in Stockholm, to a Swedish mother and an Italian father (from Florence). As a baby, he was adopted from an orphanage. At 17, he spent a year as an exchange student in Omaha, Nebraska. He took his first acting classes there, as a senior in high school playing, amongst other things, a small part in the drama Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. When he returned to Sweden, he was accepted at ballet school, but after one year, gave it up. An ex-girlfriend suggested he try theatre, instead, and at 24 he was accepted to the Malmö Theatre Academy. After graduating, Nyqvist worked mainly in theatre, but also landed smaller parts in several different film productions.

Career

Nyqvist's first big breakthrough came in 2000 with the film Together directed by Lukas Moodysson. The movie was set in the 1970s and followed the antics of life in a suburban commune in Stockholm. The movie achieved great international success and earned Nyqvist his first Guldbagge Best Actor nomination for his role as a misguided husband with anger issues. He later played the leading man in the Swedish romantic comedy, The Guy in the Grave Next Door directed by Kjell Sundvall. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Katarina Mazetti. The film explored the difficulties that arise between a country farmer and a city librarian, highlighting the differences between blue-collar laborers and white-collar administrators. Nyqvist won a Guldbagge Best Actor award for his role as the farmer, Benny.

In 2004, he played the lead role as Daniel Daréus, a conductor and musician, in the Academy Award-nominated Best Foreign Film As It Is in Heaven, directed by Kay Pollak. It is one of the most-watched Swedish films, and the role highlighted Nyqvist's ability to display tenderness and vulnerability at the same time as rage and fear. In 2006, he starred in Suddenly directed by Johan Brisinger. In Suddenly, Nyqvist plays Lasse - a man who must come to terms with the sudden loss of his wife and son. In 2007, Nyqvist portrayed Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam, in The Black Pimpernel, a hero who saved several people from execution in Chile during and after the military coupe in September 1973.

He has garnered recent international attention starring as Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish title: Män som hatar kvinnor), The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish title: Flickan som lekte med elden), and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish title: Luftslottet som sprängdes) of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series. Although Nyqvist always was high on the list of potential actors to portray Blomkvist, his charisma got him the role. The director of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Niels Arden Oplev, found what he was looking for in Nyqvist - someone with the right looks, charm, and likeability.

He starred in Abduction (2011), directed by John Singleton. He is also part of the permanent ensemble at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Nyqvist appeared in the 2011 action thriller Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the fourth film of the series, directed by Brad Bird. In the film, Nyqvist portrays a madman code-named 'Cobalt', who wants to instigate a global war between Russia and the United States that he believes will restore ecological balance to the planet. In 2014, he appeared in John Wick as the antagonist, a New York Russian mob boss who is forced to protect his son from a legendary hit man played by Keanu Reeves.

Personal life

Nyqvist has described his childhood and quest to find his biological parents, subsequently in his adult life, in his autobiographical novel, Just After Dreaming (Swedish title: När barnet lagt sig). He is married to scenographer Catharina Ehrnrooth and has two children, Ellen and Arthur.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Kamraterna	The model	TV movie
1987	Jim och piraterna Blom
1990	Pass		TV movie
1996	Sånt är livet	Kalle Andersson
1997	Tic Tac	Vinni
1997-1998	Beck	John Banck	TV series (7 episodes)
1998	Nightwalk		Short film
1998	Waiting for the Tenor	The Director
1998	Personkrets 3:1	Karl-Erik
1999	Breaking out	Diego
1999	En dag i taget	Henrik	TV series
2000	10:10	Magnus	Short film
2000	Together	Rolf
2001	Home Sweet Home	Kent
2001	Making Babies
2002	Grabben i graven brevid	Benny
2003	Smala Sussie	Mörka Rösten
2003	Detailjer	Erik
2004	As It Is in Heaven	Daniel Daréus
2004	Day and night	Jacob
2004	ABBA: Our Last Video Ever
2005	Shadow world		Short film
2005	Naboer	Åke
2005	Mother of Mine	Hjalmar Jönsson
2005	Bang Bang Orangutang	Sven Blomberg
2005	Wallander: Mastermind	Lothar Kraftzcyk	TV series (1 episode)
2006	Search
2006	Suddenly	Lasse
2007	The Black Pimpernel	Harald Edelstam
2007	Arn: The Knight Templar	Magnus Folkesson
2008	The Kautokeino Rebellion	Lars Levi Laestadius
2008	Downloading Nancy	Stan
2008	Iscariot	Masen
2009	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Mikael Blomkvist
2009	The Girl Who Played with Fire	Mikael Blomkvist
2009	Bröllopsfotografen	Stage actor
2009	The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest	Mikael Blomkvist
2010	The Woman That Dreamed About a Man	Johan
2010	Among Us	Ernst
2010	Kennedys Hirn	Lars Hakansson	TV movie
2010	The Chinese Man	Staffan
2011	Abduction	Nikola Kozlow
2011	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	Kurt Hendricks
2012	Disconnect	Stephen Schumacher
2013	Zero Hour	White Vincent	TV series
2013	Europa Report	Andrei Blok
2013	The Girl from Nagasaki	Father Lars
2013	Days and Nights	Johan
2014	John Wick	Viggo Tarasov
2014	The Girl in the Book	Milan Daneker	Post-production
2014	100 Code	Mikael Eklund	TV series
2014	Paris Follies	Jesper
2015	The Girl King	Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna	Completed
2016	Frank & Lola	Alan	Post-production
2016	Colonia	Paul Schäfer

Awards

• Best Male Actor at the Guldbagge, the Swedish Oscar 2002
• Filmstar of the year 2002 and 2004 by Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper
• Best Male Actor 2003 by Nöjesguiden
• Price winner The Golden Sun, 2004
• Best Actor in the International Film Festival in Gijon 2003
• As It Is in Heaven was nominated as Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards in 2004
• Best Male Actor in the International Film Festival in Minsk 2006
• Won the Audience Price at the Gulbagge Gala 2006

Bibliography

• Dansa för oss (2013)
• När barnet lagt sig (2011)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]