Max von Sydow and Me
					My earliest memory of seeing Max von Sydow in action was watching him as Ming the Merciless in 'Flash Gordon' when I was about ten years old. I remember being transfixed by this commanding screen presence; his accent, which I couldn't quite place, his strange agelessness (though Max was 50 at the time, he could have been anywhere between 35 and 60; a trait that has since given critics cause to dub him immortal) and his unusual foreign name.
	The next Max film I saw was 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' - where, again, he was done up in dark make-up and had a beard, making him look familiar as a younger Ming! His role, of course was quite different and it immediately struck me that this guy must be quite versatile to play Jesus and an evil space Emperor! Some two or three years later I really got hooked - and I mean hook, line and sinker! - when my dad, a fan of Stephen King, rented 'Needful Things'. I had imagined Max to have dark hair and to always walk about in robes (be they the red satin variety from 'Flash', or the ubiquitous bathrobe he wore in 'Greatest Story'), and almost didn't recognise him as devilish shopowner Leland Gaunt. They say the Devil gets all the best tunes; the stirring music of the opening credits seemed to perfectly complement this foreign, exotic-sounding name - 'Max von Sydow' - as it came on screen. The rest of the film was compelling, with a brilliant finale. Always a fan of the horror genre, I couldn't believe I was watching Ming the Merciless wreaking so much havoc! Soon after, I searched for Max's name on the internet and found the site that later became Cindy Olofsson's maxvonsydow.net and another one by Dan Starr. Both sadly got pulled within months of each other - Dan's permenantly - but Cindy managed to get her's up-and-running again, to my great relief. Both sites got me on the look-out for Max's many other films and demonstrated how universal his appeal is. Soon I was scouring TV listings and video stores for anything with his name on it. I've always thought of myself as a bit of a collector, a hoarder, and I think of just seeing Max's films as a form of collecting. Over the past four years or so I have 'collected' about sixty of Max's films and am always searching for more.  Asked if I have a favourite Max performance I am usually stumped. I loved him as Ming, perhaps because that was the first role I ever saw him in, but I'm also a great fan of his Swedish work - especially with Ingmar Bergman - and greatly admired his performances as Jesus in 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', as Leland Guant in 'Needful Things' and as lawyer Nels in 'Snow Falling on Cedars'. I definately think a cinema is the best place to view any of Max's films, as his voice is definately one to be heard booming out to an audience, but only his newest or classic films are generally shown on the big screen. I would love to see Max working in his original profession - as a stage actor - and always hope he will do a touring production to the UK! That said, nowadays I'd probably travel abroad to see a play if I knew he was in it! A newcomer to webpages, I hope this site in some small way contributes to Max's growing internet fanbase. I think the fact that Max isn't a major celebrity adds to the enjoyment of learning about his work - he's not in the newspapers everyday, staring you in the face. If you want to appreciate Max fully, you have to look for him. Of course, asked who their favourite actor is, their kudos is much greater if someone says 'Max von Sydow' than, say, 'Bruce Willis'. However, the great joy for me lies in answering the all-too-frequent question "Who's he?..." Campbell Price 2002
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