Georg af Klercker

in Swedish

Georg af Klercker

1877 - 1951

Military, silent film director, actor, screenwriter and set designer.

A Klercker was supposed to become a soldier, that's all! At the Svea Life Guards he became a first lieutenant, but then he had enough of that stuff.

Since his father was a major and two of his brothers eventually became generals and two became captains, it was not entirely popular in the family when Georg dropped out of the military to study acting in Copenhagen. Scandal was probably the right word.

After touring the Nordic countries with various theatre companies, he ended up at the Dramaten in Stockholm. From here he was taken to film by Charles Magnusson, who made him the director of his studios on Lidingö.

Here Georg af Klercker made several silent films ('Death ride under the circus dome'). He both directed and sometimes played several roles in each film. The most famous of these films was ”Dödsritt under cirkuskupolen” which is considered something out of the ordinary.

When the First World War broke out, he worked in Paris at the Pathé film company..

Back in Sweden in 1915, he was hired as a director by Hasselbladfilm in Gothenburg. Here he made 28 silent films over the course of three years! Several of these are considered to be of very high quality and were far ahead of their time in terms of photography and dramaturgy.

However, not everything was gold: At Hasselbladfilm in 1917 he shot "The Mystery of the Night of the 25th", which was a sensational film in the style of Nick Carter. It was completely banned by the Swedish film censors.!

After working in theatres in Gothenburg for a while, af Klercker moved home to Skåne. Among old Malmö residents he is best known as an actor at the theatere 'Hippodromen' during its heyday with Oscar Winge as theatre director.

Georg af Klercker stod inte bara på scen i komedier och enstaka dramer utan var dessutom uppfinningsrik scenograf. Vid sidan av teaterlivet var han också affärsman.

He was one of the founders of the Actors' Order Society (TSO) and was also actively involved there until his death.

Georg af Klercker received the Ingmar Bergman Prize posthumously in 1991. Ingmar Bergman has also written a play about a meeting between Georg af Klercker and Charles Magnusson: The Last Scream - a Lightly Tinted Morality, which became a TV play in 1995.

He wasa married 1) with Thyra Zelina Sundqvist. 2) with the actress Selma Wiklund. 3) with Vera Boman. In his first marriage he had a son Eric Henrik Georg.

Gravesite at Gamla kyrkogården (IDstory)
which is next to Gustav Adolfs Torg (IDstory).

References

• About BiBB, a media company and an encyclopedia 4.0
• Bengt Idestam-Almquist 1973. Svensk film före Gösta Berling
• Georg af Klercker, en stumfilmsregissör
• Leif Furuhammar 1991. Filmen i Sverige.
• Text: Christian Kindblad | 'Photo: Jonas Andréasson

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Published: 2004.06 Updated: 2025.06.12

Kategorier 20 Historical persons 45 Malmö 44

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