Bjorn Andrésen, who became known worldwide after starring in the 1971 film Death in Venice and was nicknamed “the most beautiful boy in the world,” has died at age 70. The Swedish actor stated that the phrase haunted him his entire life.
The Swedish actor Björn Andrésen was only 15 when he was cast in the 1971 film Death in Venice. Italian director Luchino Visconti cast him in the film, which was based on Thomas Mann’s novel.
Visconti nicknamed Andrésen “the most beautiful boy in the world” in a press interview, and the phrase stuck with the Swede his entire life. Sadly, it became somewhat haunting for Andrésen.
Later in life, he spoke about how being branded the most beautiful boy in the world, and the negative experience of working with director Luchino Visconti, impacted his entire life.
“I felt like an exotic animal in a cage,” he told The Guardian in 2003. In 2021, he said making the film “screwed up” his life quite decently.”
“Everything I ever do will be associated with that film. I mean, we’re still sitting here talking about it 50 years later,” Andrésen said.
Bjorn Andresen, “the most beautiful boy in the world,” dead at 70
Andrésen continued to have a successful career in acting. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden, and his life began with a huge tragedy as his mother took her life when he was only 10 years of age. He was raised by his grandmother.
Bjorn was pushed into acting and modeling by his grandmother. He said she wanted “a celebrity in the family.”
Swedish actor Bjorn Andresen on the set of Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice), written and directed by Italian Luchino Visconti. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Filming Death In Venice turned Björn Andrésen into a huge star. However, director Visconti acted in a way that wasn’t OK at all. At just 16 years of age, Bjorn was brought to gay nightclubs by Visconti, which made him feel “very uncomfortable.”
“I knew I couldn’t react. It would have been social suicide. But it was the first of many such encounters,” Andrésen once said.
The actor acknowledged that he wanted the Italian director he worked for to “fck off” if he was still alive today, as he “didn’t give a fck” about his feelings.
“I’ve never seen so many fascists and assholes as there are in film and theatre. Luchino was the sort of cultural predator who would sacrifice anything or anyone for the work,” Andrésen continued.
Succesful career
Instead of heading to Hollywood, Bjorn Andrésen became big in Japan. He worked as a model and a pop star, and told The Guardian in 2003 that the “hysteria” was like The Beatles.
Later in life, he became a pianist and accomplished musician. But still, Andrésen’s role in Death in Venice haunted him all the way to the end.
PALMA DE MALLORCA, SPAIN – JULY 28: Bjorn Andresen attends ‘El Chico Mas Bello Del Mundo’ (The Most Beautiful Boy in the World) photocall during the Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest 2021 at Catedral on July 28, 2021 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. (Photo by Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images)
On Sunday, October 26, the co-directors, Kristian Petri and Kristina Lindstrom, of the 2021 documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World about Bjorn Andrésen, announced the actor’s passing at age 70. No cause of death was given.
“My career is one of the few that started at the absolute top and then worked its way down,” Bjorn Andrésen once told The Guardian. “That was lonely.”
Rest in peace, Bjorn.
