Per Ragnar's quiet menace is persuasive; his Håkan in Let the Right One In is more troubling for the loneliness beneath it. We value that complexity, though his repeated casting as dangerous men risks making it too easy to overlook.
Fi1m perspective
In Let the Right One In (2008), Per Ragnar makes Håkan's loneliness difficult to separate from his menace. We were unsettled by him because his need for affection makes it difficult to dismiss the man as simply evil. Ragnar leaves room for us to wonder about him, rather than treating a supporting role as a quick way to supply a threat. We rate him most highly when he allows that uncertainty to remain.
His earlier screen career was not confined to such parts. He made his film debut in Korridoren (1968), playing a young doctor, then took the role of Arvid Falk in Röda rummet (1970) and fänrik Ancker in Någonstans i Sverige (1973). The decisive turn was Sten Frisk in the television series Tre Kronor (1994–99), whose intensity helped make him widely recognisable. More than a decade of typecasting in menacing or disturbed roles followed. That history explains the familiar threat he brings to a part, but it should not be the only thing we notice.
Tomas Alfredson is the director to start with. Let the Right One In earns our strong recommendation for its tender, unsettling friendship between a bullied boy and a vampire, its young leads and its wintry photography. Some of the violence is too neatly arranged, a reservation worth keeping even when the performances persuade us. Ragnar's account of Håkan helps explain what makes his contribution valuable. He said: “I see Håkan, if I disregard the vampire theme, as an extremely lonely little man who is crying out for love and acknowledgement.”
Typecasting is a limitation here, though it would be unfair to treat it as proof of limited ability. Once Sten Frisk had made Ragnar recognisable, the repeated demand for threatening characters risked letting an audience decide what he was playing before he had done much of it. Håkan gives us a reason to resist that shortcut. Start with Let the Right One In, and give Ragnar's quieter work as much attention as the menace.
Biography
Per Ragnar, also credited as Per-Erik Ragnar, is a Swedish actor, director and author. Born in Kalmar in 1941, he trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school (Dramatens elevskola) in Stockholm from 1962 to 1965. He later worked as a director's assistant to Ingmar Bergman on stage productions, including Peter Weiss's The Investigation.
Ragnar made his film debut in Korridoren (1968) and appeared in television series such as Röda rummet (1970) and Någonstans i Sverige (1973). He is known for his role as the religious fanatic Sten Frisk in the long-running series Tre Kronor (1994–1999) and as Håkan in Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In (2008), for which he received a Guldbagge Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He has also directed, written books on philosophical and religious topics, and performed a stage monologue as Adolf Hitler.
