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Lena Olin

Age: 54
Height: 5' 11"

Birth Place: Stockholm, Stockholms l�n, Sweden
Born: Mar. 22nd, 1955

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Lena Olin's Main TV Roles

Show	Character(s)
Alias	Irina Derevko

NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at IMDB

BIOGRAPHY:

Swedish-born Lena Olin already had a successful career as an actress before she came to Hollywood. She acted at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm and was directed by Ingmar Bergman. Her father. Stig Olin, was also an actor and played in six of Bergman's films. Lena also belongs to the Bergman "family." As a young actress, she played in the great classics of William Shakespeare (I), Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. She made her international debut as a movie actress in Efter repetitionen (1984) (TV) (aka "After the Rehearsal"), directed by Bergman. In western Europe she became well known in the political movie The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) as Sabina, in a story about the Prague spring (1968). After coming to the US, she played mostly distinguished, exotic temptresses, intelligent women and crude vamps. Bergman had developed Lena's artistic gift to play different human emotions and express them in a subtle way. Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa (1985), rewrote the screenplay for _Havana (1990)_ especially for her. This explains why this film recalls associations with the classic Casablanca (1942), starring Ingrid Bergman (I), also from Sweden. Olin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Enemies: A Love Story (1989). She went on to have a choice role in Chocolat (2000), which received a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. She made a move to the smaller screen and played the role for one season as the deliciously evil Irina Derevko, the mother to Jennifer Garner (I)'s Sydney Bristow in the series "Alias" (2001). Olin received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

TRIVIA:

Daughter of actor 'Stig Olin' (qv) and actress 'Britta Holmberg' (qv).
Before becoming an actress Lena worked both as a sub teacher (in languages) and as a hospital nurse (she first studied medicine at university) back in Sweden.
Had son Auguste with Swedish actor and Royal Dramatic Theatre colleague '�rjan Ramberg' (qv).
Member of Sweden's Royal Dramatic Theatre (1980-1994).
Failed twice - both times in the very last test - two years in a row before she was accepted the third time at Sweden's prestigious National Theatre Academy (Teaterh�gskolan) in 1976.
Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1988.
Considered for the role of Maria Ruskin in _The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)_ (qv).
Has a fine singing voice. Recorded, a.o., Swedish song "M�nniskors gl�dje" (written and composed by her father 'Stig Olin' (qv)) and Swedish country/folk tune "Sommarbrevet (Jag skrev ett brev)" in the 1970s (Polar Music, Sweden).