--- name: "Bengt Ekerot" canonical: "https://film.one/person/bengt-ekerot" fi1m_id: "bengt-ekerot" imdb_id: "nm0252345" tmdb_id: 6656 wikidata_id: "Q792878" roles: ["Actor"] born: "8 February 1920" died: "26 November 1971" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T23:30:11.296989+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Bengt Ekerot ## Identity Bengt Ekerot - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/bengt-ekerot - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** bengt-ekerot - **IMDb ID:** nm0252345 - **TMDB ID:** 6656 - **Wikidata ID:** Q792878 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengt_Ekerot, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q792878, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0252345/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6656 Actor. Born 8 February 1920 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. Died 26 November 1971. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 8 February 1920, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden - **Died:** 26 November 1971 - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengt_Ekerot, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q792878, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0252345/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6656 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*The Seventh Seal*](https://film.one/film/the-seventh-seal.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Bengt Ekerot > Bengt Ekerot makes an impossible encounter feel horribly plain. His Death in *The Seventh Seal* gives the knight someone definite to confront, and we recommend the performance even when Bergman's dialogue makes hard work of the questions. In *The Seventh Seal* (1957), Bengt Ekerot sits across a chessboard from a knight, his face white above a black cloak. The face was developed with director Ingmar Bergman as a mixture of clown mask and skull. It is an unnerving face to have to address with a serious question. Ekerot makes the costume convincing enough that we attend to the knight's predicament rather than the business of dressing an actor as Death. Von Sydow plays Antonius Block with a need for reassurance that remains recognisable when the theological debate grows difficult. We felt a chill at their chess game, because Ekerot makes the knight's fear as easy to picture as a man sitting opposite him. The two performances work together: von Sydow keeps the anguish from becoming grand, while Ekerot gives it a definite cause. Bergman's dialogue sometimes labours its questions about faith, and this casting cannot make every exchange equally rewarding. It does keep us concerned for the man asking. The sensitive, troubled young men of Ekerot's earlier Swedish films, including *Dynamit* (1947), are useful context for this work. Death was not the starting point of his screen acting, however thoroughly the part came to define it. He also directed *Det glada kalaset* (1946), and his theatre directing included the 1956 world premiere of *Long Day's Journey into Night*. His film acting reached its defining stretch with Bergman in 1957–58, with *The Magician* (1958) giving him the part of vaudevillian Johan Spegel. That role continued the association with death. The danger with a role this recognisable is that we stop looking at the performance and settle for the picture. We would start with *The Seventh Seal*, with some patience for its heavier dialogue and an eye on both actors at the chessboard. Watch how much the encounter depends on having a credible person opposite the knight, even in that costume. ## Biography Bengt Ekerot (1920–1971) was a Swedish actor and director. Born Nils Bengt Folke Ekerot in Stockholm, he made his film debut in 1940 and appeared in around 35 feature films between 1940 and 1968, while also working extensively in theatre. He is best known for his role as Death in Ingmar Bergman's *The Seventh Seal* (1957). He also appeared in Bergman's *The Magician* (1958) as Johan Spegel. In 1956 he directed the world premiere of Eugene O'Neill's *Long Day's Journey into Night* at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. He received the Gold Medal from Teaterförbundet in 1956. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, ingmarbergman.se, britannica.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Seventh Seal* (1957), Fi1m 88, as Death — [page](https://film.one/film/the-seventh-seal.md) ## Complete filmography (40) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Corridor* (1968), as Birger Olsson - *Who Saw Him Die?* (1968), as Eriksson - *Ola and Julia* (1967), as Max - *Life's Just Great* (1967), as The neighbour - *Here Is Your Life* (1966), as Byberg - *The D.T.'s* (1966), as Policeman/Social Worker/Guard - *Portrait of Stockholm - A Walk Through 5 Centuries* (1964), Actor - *The Face of War* (1963), as Narrator (voice) - *Det går an* (1963), Actor - *On a Bench in a Park* (1960), as Sam Persson - *Måsen* (1959), Director - *The Magician* (1958), as Johan Spegel - *Jazz Boy* (1958), as Erik Jonsson - *The Seventh Seal* (1957), as Death — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-seventh-seal.md) - *Sceningång* (1956), as Johan Erikson · Director - *Hamlet* (1955), as Hamlet - *Marianne* (1953), Actor - *The Nuthouse* (1951), as A student - *Dynamite* (1947), as Allan Axelson - *Barbacka* (1946), Director - *Det glada kalaset* (1946), Director - *Interlude* (1946), as German patient - *Brita i grosshandlarhuset* (1946), as "Paniken" - *13 Chairs* (1945), Actor - *Crime and Punishment* (1945), as Student - *Put Our Märta First or As Luck Will Have It* (1945), as radio man (voice) (uncredited) · Assistant Director - *Rosen på Tistelön* (1945), as Anton Haraldsson - *Three Sons* (1945), as Erik - *The Royal Rabble* (1945), Actor - *Herre med portfölj* (1943), as Stig - *Sonja* (1943), as Bengt - *När ungdomen vaknar* (1943), as Lennart - *Natt i hamn* (1943), as John - *Man glömmer ingenting* (1942), as Student at art school (uncredited) - *We Home Toilers* (1942), as Linus Tallhagen - *Flames in the Dark* (1942), as Åke Kronström - *Snapphanar* (1941), as Lille-Jonas - *The Talk of the Town* (1941), as Sven Törring - *Hanna in High Society* (1940), as Fred Hummerberg - *They Staked Their Lives* (1940), as Dick, freedom fighter ## Gallery - ![Bengt Ekerot](https://film.one/media/person/106061/gallery-202179addf37.jpg) Bengt Ekerot — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Bengt_Ekerot.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photograph of actor Bengt Ekerot and director Ingmar Bergman during the principal photography of The Seventh Seal. (1956)](https://film.one/media/person/106061/gallery-0ea7fff2ca08.jpg) Photograph of actor Bengt Ekerot and director Ingmar Bergman during the principal photography of The Seventh Seal. (1956) — Louis Huch / Svensk Filmindustri, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Bergman-Ekerot-1956.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/bengt-ekerot