Gustaf Molander - biography
Gustaf Harald August Molander was born in Helsinki, Finland on November 18, 1888. He died in Sweden on June 19, 1973.
Gustaf Molander was an actor, film director and a screenwriter. He directed 70 films - including 62 full length fiction films -, and wrote screenplays for 53 films.
Molander's parents were the director Harald Molander (1858-1943) and the singer and actress Lydia Molander - née Wessler -, and his brother was the director Olof Molander (1892-1966). The actor Jan Molander is a son of Gustaf Molander.
Gustaf Molander crew up in Helsinki, Finland. His father worked at the Swedish Theatre of Helsinki. From 1907 and 1909, Gustaf Molander attended the school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. From 1909 to 1913 he acted at the Swedish theatre of Helsinki.
At the time, Finland was still an autonimic Grand Duchy of Russia, whose increasing political turmoil could be felt also in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. To avoid the Russian draft and the chaos, Molander returned to Stockholm.
He worked as an actor at the Royal Dramatic Theater from 1913-1926. The last years there he headed the school, and his students included the Academy Award winning actress Greta Garbo.
Molander wrote several screenplays for Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller - another Helsinkian -, and was helped by the latter to get employment as a director for Svensk Filmindustri, where he worked from 1923 to 1956.
Molander's films include Intermezzo (1936), which became the actress Ingrid Bergman's breakthrough, paving her way to America, where she starred in the 1939 Hollywood remake of the film.
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