Erland Josephson, Swedish actor, dies

STOCKHOLM -- Swedish actor Erland Josephson, who collaborated with director Ingmar Bergman in more than 40 films and plays, died Saturday at 88.

He died in a Stockholm hospital following a long battle against Parkinson's disease, said Royal Dramatic Theatre spokeswoman Christina Bjerkander.

Born in 1923 into a family of artists and culture workers in Stockholm, Josephson was the actor with the longest-running collaboration with Bergman. They met when Josephson, 16, appeared as an amateur in "The Merchant of Venice," directed by Bergman.

Without any formal acting education, Josephson appeared in several Bergman stage plays in the 1940s and '50s, and had a minor part in a 1946 film, "It Rains on Our Love." In the late '50s he played larger roles in Bergman's films "The Magician" and "Brink of Life," but he first shot to international stardom with the role of Johan in "Scenes from a Marriage," in 1973.

He played Friedrich Nietzsche in Liliana Cavani's 1977 "Beyond Good and Evil." In 1986, he won an Obie for his role as Gajev in Peter Brooks' production of "Cherry Farm."

Josephson is survived by his wife Ulla Aberg and five children. -- AP