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Björn Andrésen

Björn Andrésen

Actor · 1955 – 2025 · Stockholm, Sweden

Björn Johan Andrésen (26 January 1955 – 25 October 2025) was a Swedish actor and musician. He was best known for playing the fourteen-year-old Tadzio in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film adaptation of the Thomas Mann novella Death in Venice. Andrésen had only appeared in one film, En kärlekshistoria (1970) at the time he was cast in Death in Venice, which gained him international recognition. While the film performed relatively poorly at the box office, Andrésen was noted for his performance as Tadzio, the beautiful young Polish boy with whom the film's older protagonist Gustav von Aschenbach becomes obsessed. Film historian Lawrence J. Quirk commented in his study The Great Romantic Films (1974) that some shots of Andrésen "could be extracted from the frame and hung on the walls of the Louvre or the Vatican". Rumors circulated in America at the time of the film's release as to whether or not Andrésen was homosexual (as the role demanded that he appear to exchange romantic glances with the protagonist, and on another occasion, be kissed and caressed by another teenage boy). Andrésen emphatically denied these, and later recounted his discomfort at being forced by director Luchino Visconti during filming to visit a gay bar, where he attracted the attention of a number of older men.  Eager to dispel the rumors regarding his sexuality and to shed his "pretty boy" image, Andrésen thereafter avoided homosexual roles and parts which he felt would play off of his good looks, and was angry when feminist writer Germaine Greer used a photograph of him on the cover of her book The Beautiful Boy (2003) without first obtaining his personal permission. Although Greer did consult photographer David Bailey (who owned the copyright for the image) before publishing the book, Andrésen maintained that it is common practice when a party uses an image of a person which has been copyrighted by a different individual to inform the individual and that he would not have given his consent for Greer to use his picture if she had informed him of her plans. Andrésen has also appeared in several other films. These include Pelikaanimies (2004),  Kojan (1992) and Smugglarkungen (1985).

Movies22

  • Movie7.1

    Midsommar

    2019 · 8.4K votes

  • Movie7.3

    Världens vackraste pojke

    The Most Beautiful Boy in the World

    2021 · 61 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Morte a Venezia

    Death in Venice

    1971 · 559 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Pelikaanimies

    Pelicanman

    2004 · 8 votes

  • Movie7.0

    En kärlekshistoria

    A Swedish Love Story

    1970 · 174 votes

  • Movie4.8

    Gräsänklingar

    One-Week Bachelors

    1982 · 13 votes

  • Movie

    Hotellet

    The Hotel

    2016

  • Movie7.0

    Den enfaldige mördaren

    The Simple-Minded Murderer

    1982 · 75 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Morrhår och ärtor

    Peas & Whiskers

    1986 · 32 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Gentlemen

    2014 · 25 votes

  • Movie4.6

    Arvet

    Wallander: The Heritage

    2010 · 17 votes

  • Movie4.9

    1939

    1989 · 17 votes

  • Movie6.1
  • Movie7.3

    Lysande landning

    1987 · 4 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Smugglarkungen

    The Smuggler King

    1985 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Alla ricerca di Tadzio

    Searching for Tadzio

    1970 · 15 votes

  • Movie4.0

    Visconti's Venice

    1970 · 1 votes

  • Movie5.5

    Shelley

    2016 · 135 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Bluff Stop

    1977 · 1 votes

  • Movie
  • Movie10.0
  • Movie3.7

Series5

  • TV6.9

    Wallander

    2005 · 71 votes

  • TV7.2

    Springfloden

    2016 · 30 votes

  • TV6.0

    Agatha Christies Hjerson

    Agatha Christie's Hjerson

    2021 · 25 votes

  • TV
  • TV5.5

    Två systrar

    Two Sisters

    2021 · 2 votes