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Bo Svenson | |
|---|---|
 Svenson in 2023 | |
| Born | 13 February 1941 Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1965–present |
| Spouse | Lise Svenson (m. 1966) |
| Children | 3 [1] |
| Website | bosvenson |
Bo Svenson (born Bo Ragnar Svensson; 13 February 1941) is a Swedish-American actor, film director, film producer, and screenwriter, known for his roles in American genre films of the 1970s and 1980s.
Svenson was born in Sweden, the son of Birger Ragnar Svensson (1917–?), an athlete and the personal driver and bodyguard for the King of Sweden, and musician/big band leader Iris Viola "Lola" Svensson (1912–1998).
Svenson emigrated to the United States when he was 17, joined the United States Marine Corps, and served until his honorable discharge six years later. [2] After his military service, Svenson settled in Florida, where he earned his living in various jobs, including professional race car driver. [3] [4] His first state of residence in the United States was Georgia, where he became familiar with the rural Southern accent he later employed in some of his roles. [4] He has since become a naturalized United States citizen. [5]
He also holds a fourth degree (Yondan) black belt in judo. He earned his first degree (Shodan) belt at Kodokan in Japan, the home dojo of Judo, while stationed in Japan in 1961 as a Marine. [6] He was the 1961 Far East Judo Champion in the Heavyweight Division. [4]
In the late 1960s, Svenson had a recurring role in the TV series Here Come the Brides as Lumberjack Olaf "Big Swede" Gustavsen. He appeared in the 1973 made-for-TV movie Frankenstein , in which he plays the "Creature".
One of his first big-screen movie roles was opposite Robert Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper , where Redford and Svenson play rival ex-WWI U.S. Army Air Service pilots who are now employed in the hard and dangerous but wildly adventurous lives of 1920s barnstorming pilots, touring the Midwest.
In his next pursuit, Svenson took over the role of lawman Buford Pusser from Joe Don Baker in both sequels to the hit 1973 film Walking Tall , after Pusser himself, who had originally agreed to take over the role, died in an automobile crash. He reprised the role again for the short-lived 1981 television series of the same name. [7]
One of his most famous roles in films was as murder-witness-turned-vigilante Michael McBain in the 1976 cult classic Breaking Point . He played the Soviet agent Ivan in the Magnum, P.I. episode "Did You See the Sunrise?" (1982) and many years later had a cameo as an American colonel in Inglourious Basterds , as a tribute to his role in The Inglorious Bastards ; he is the only actor to appear in both films. [7]
Svenson got name-checked by Breaking Bad 's Mike Ehrmantraut. [8]
Svenson has co-starred in a number of films with Fred Williamson. They include, The Inglorious Bastards (1978), [9] Deadly Impact (1984), [10] Delta Force Commando (1987), [11] The Kill Reflex (1989), [12] Three Days to a Kill (1991), [13] and Steele's Law (1991) [14]
Svenson maintains an active role in the entertainment industry and is the Founder and CEO of MagicQuest Entertainment, a Hollywood production company since 1975, and Founder and CEO of CanAm Film Corp., a British Columbia corporation since 1992. [15]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Maurie | Jack Twyman | |
| 1974 | The Great Waldo Pepper | Axel Olsson | |
| 1975 | Walking Tall, Part 2 | Buford Pusser | |
| 1976 | Breaking Point | Michael McBain | |
| Special Delivery | Jack Murdock | ||
| 1977 | The Son of the Sheik | Unknown | |
| Snowbeast | Gar Seberg | ||
| Walking Tall: Final Chapter | Buford Pusser | ||
| 1978 | The Inglorious Bastards | Lieutenant Robert Yeager | |
| 1979 | Portrait of a Hitman | Dr. Bob Michaels | |
| North Dallas Forty | Jo Bob Priddy | ||
| 1980 | Sverige åt svenskarna | The Lad | |
| Virus | Major Carter | ||
| 1982 | Night Warning | Detective Joe Carlson | |
| 1983 | Thunder Warrior | Sheriff Bill Cook | |
| 1984 | Deadly Impact | George Ryan | |
| The Manhunt | Sheriff | ||
| 1985 | Wizards of the Lost Kingdom | Kor | |
| 1986 | The Delta Force | Captain Campbell | |
| Choke Canyon | Captain Oliver Parkside | ||
| Armour of God | Monk | ||
| Heartbreak Ridge | Roy Jennings, Palace Bar Owner | ||
| 1987 | Maniac Killer | Count Silvano | |
| Movie in Action | The Director | ||
| Thunder Warrior II | Sheriff Roger | ||
| Double Target | Colonel Galckin | ||
| White Phantom | The Colonel | ||
| Brothers in Blood | Steven Elliott Logan / Steel | ||
| 1988 | Andy Colby's Incredible Adventure | Kor The Conqueror | |
| Delta Force Commando | Colonel Keitel | ||
| Deep Space | Captain Robertson | ||
| Primal Rage | Ethridge | ||
| 1989 | Soda Cracker | Ivan Moss | |
| Curse II: The Bite | The Sheriff | ||
| Beyond the Door III | Professor Andromolek | ||
| 1990 | Tides of War | SS Colonel | |
| Laser Mission | Colonel | ||
| 1991 | Critical Action | Ex-Con | |
| Steele's Law | Sheriff Barnes | ||
| 1992 | Three Days to a Kill | Rick | |
| 1994 | Savage Land | Jeb | |
| 1995 | Private Obsession | Sam Weston | |
| Steel Frontier | Colonel Roy Ackett | ||
| 1996 | Cheyenne | Captain Starrett | |
| 1997 | Speed 2: Cruise Control | Captain Pollard | |
| 1998 | Yukie | Richard | |
| 2000 | Crackerjack 3 | Jack Thorn | |
| 2001 | Outlaw | Detective Maize | |
| 2004 | Legacy | Purse Snatcher | |
| Kill Bill: Volume 2 | Reverend Harmony | ||
| 2005 | Hell to Pay | Del Shannon | |
| 2006 | Raising Jeffrey Dahmer | Detective John Amos | |
| 2008 | I Am Somebody: No Chance in Hell | Bo, Foreman | |
| 2009 | Inglourious Basterds | American Colonel | |
| 2010 | Jersey Justice | W.W. Tolliver | |
| The 7 Adventures of Sinbad | Simon Magnusson | ||
| Angry | Bill | ||
| Icarus | Vadim | ||
| 2014 | The Dependables | Mick Skinner | |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Flipper | Harry Hobson | Episode: "Coral Fever" |
| 1967 | N.Y.P.D. | Actor | Episode: "Shakedown" |
| 1968 | Premier | Milovan Drumm | Episode: "The Freebooters" |
| Mission Impossible | Karl | Episode: "The Mercenaries" | |
| Here Comes the Brides | 'Big Swede' | 10 episodes | |
| 1969 | Lancer | Josh | Episode: "The Wedding" |
| The Name of the Game | G.B. Mosbie | Episode: "Love-In at Ground Zero" | |
| Daniel Boone | Haskins | Episode: "A Pinch of Salt" | |
| The High Chaparral | Bennett | Episode: "Trail to Nevemore" | |
| Ironside | Baron Lars Von Gyllenskjold | Episode: "Love My Enemy" | |
| 1970 | The Virginian | Lonnie | Episode: "The Price of the Hanging" |
| Mod Squad | Bubba | Episode: "Welcome to the Human Race, Levi Frazee!" | |
| 1971 | The Chicago Teddy Bears | Georgi | Episode: "Billy the Kid" |
| McCloud | Charles 'Bubba' White | Episode: "Top of the World, Ma" | |
| 1972 | The Bravos | Raeder | TV movie |
| The Rookies | Bud Reeves | Episode: "The Commitment" | |
| Banyon | Carlo | Episode: "Meal Ticket" | |
| 1973 | ABC's Wide World of Entertainment | Monster | 2 part episode: "Frankenstein" |
| You'll Never See Me Again | Sam | TV movie | |
| Kung Fu | Pike | Episode: "The Spirit-Helper" | |
| 1974 | The Snoop Sisters | Chet Marion | Episode: "Fear Is a Free-Throw" |
| 1975 | Target Risk | Lee Driscoll | TV movie |
| 1977 | Snowbeast | Gar Seberg | TV movie |
| 1979 | Gold of the Amazon Women | Tom Jensen | TV movie |
| The Spirit of Adventure: Night Flight | Fabien | TV movie | |
| 1981 | Walking Tall | Sheriff Buford Pusser | 7 episodes |
| 1982 | Magnum, P.I. | Ivan | Episode: "Did You See the Sun Rise?" |
| 1983 | The Fall Guy | Colonel Baker | 2 episodes |
| 1984 | Jealousy | Ho Hutton | TV movie |
| Hunter | Sheriff Jake Cutter | Episode: "A Long Way from L.A." | |
| 1985 | Crazy like a Fox | Unknown | Episode: "Motor Homicide" |
| 1987 | The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission | Maurice Fontenac | TV movie |
| 1988 | Murder, She Wrote | Karl Anderson | 2 episodes |
| 1993 | Neon Rider | Maitland | Episode: "Walking Tall" |
| Street Justice | Captain Stryker | Episode: "Countdown" | |
| The Commish | George Hayes | Episode: "Hero" | |
| 1994 | Lonesome Dove: The Series | Colonel Jeb Quintano | Episode: "Last Stand" |
| Cobra | Frank McLory | Episode: "Death Dive" | |
| Kung Fu: The Legend Continues | Ben Kinasay | Episode: "Only the Strong Survive" | |
| 1995 | Pointman | Uncle Nick | Episode: "Going Home" |
| 1997 | Heartless | Sheriff Sam | TV movie |
| 1998 | Dead Man's Gun | Colonel Horace Buckthorn | Episode: "The Mimsers" |
| 1998 | Due South | Holloway Muldoon | 2-part episode: "Call of the Wild" |
| 2002 | JAG | Captain Mikhail Yerastov | 2 episodes |
| 2004 | I'll Be Seeing You | Philip Carter | TV movie |
| Proof of the Man | Ken Shuftan | TV mini-series | |
| 2012 | Arne Dahl: Bad Blood | Daniel Brink | TV movie |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | The Road Home | |
| 1996–1998 | Kung Fu: The Legend Continues | |
| 1998 | He's Not Heavy | |
| 2001 | Outlaw | |
| 2004 | Legacy | |
| 2010 | Moomins and the Comet Chase | Voices |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Yukie | Co-producer |
| 2004 | Legacy | Producer |
| 2006 | Raising Jeffrey Dahmer | Co-producer |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Outlaw | |
| 2004 | Legacy | |
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue including a pervasive use of profanity, and references to popular culture.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, a former assassin who swears revenge on a group of assassins and their leader, Bill, who tried to kill her and her unborn child. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the sequel to Kill Bill: Volume 1, and stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and their leader Bill, who tried to kill her and her unborn child.
Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's leadership—one planned by Shosanna Dreyfus, a young French Jewish cinema proprietor, and the other planned by the British but ultimately conducted solely by a team of Jewish American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Christoph Waltz co-stars as Hans Landa, an SS colonel in charge of tracking down Raine's group. The title was inspired by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 Euro War film The Inglorious Bastards, though Tarantino's film is not a remake of it.
Ernst-Hugo Alfred Järegård was a Swedish actor.
Michael Madsen is an American actor. Alongside his frequent collaborations with Quentin Tarantino—Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)—he is known for his appearances in films such as The Natural (1984), The Doors (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Free Willy (1993), Species (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Die Another Day (2002), Sin City (2005), and Scary Movie 4 (2006). He has played voice roles in various video games, including Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Narc (2005), the Dishonored series (2012–2017), and Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023). Madsen has five children, including actor Christian Madsen.
Joe Don Baker is an American character actor and a life member of the Actors Studio. He established himself as an action star with supporting roles as a mysterious cowboy drifter in Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), and as a deputy sheriff in the western Wild Rovers (1971), before receiving fame for his roles as a mafia hitman in Charley Varrick (1973), real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in the action film Walking Tall (1973), a brute force detective in Mitchell (1975), deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice (1985), and police chief Jerry Karlin in the action-comedy Fletch (1985). He is also known for his appearances as both a villain and an ally in three James Bond films: as Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights (1987) and as CIA Agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye (1995) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).
Frederick Robert Williamson, also known as "the Hammer", is an American actor and former professional football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League (AFL) during the 1960s. Williamson has had a busy film career, starring as Tommy Gibbs in the 1973 crime drama film Black Caesar and its sequel Hell Up in Harlem. Williamson also had roles in other 1970s blaxploitation films such as Hammer (1972), That Man Bolt (1973) and Three the Hard Way (1974).
The Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 American drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. Set during 1926–1931, the film stars Robert Redford as a disaffected World War I veteran pilot who missed the opportunity to fly in combat, and examines his sense of postwar dislocation in 1920s America. The cast includes Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson, Edward Herrmann and Susan Sarandon. The Great Waldo Pepper depicts barnstorming during the 1920s and the accidents that led to aviation regulations by the Air Commerce Act.
The Inglorious Bastards is a 1978 Italian Euro War film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring Bo Svenson, Peter Hooten, Fred Williamson, Jackie Basehart, and Ian Bannen. The film, which concerns a group of prisoners who are drafted into a special war mission in 1944, is a loose (unauthorized) remake of the 1967 American film The Dirty Dozen.
Svensson is the ninth most common Swedish family name, as of 2021 there are about 88,000 residents with the name in the population register. The name is originally a patronymic surname, literally meaning "son of Sven", or "Sven's son". Sven is a Nordic first name which is used throughout Scandinavia, Estonia and Germany. The name itself is Old Norse for "Young man" or "Young warrior."
Enzo Girolami Castellari is an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor.
Walking Tall Part 2 is the 1975 sequel to the crime/action film, Walking Tall. Walking Tall Part 2 was directed by Earl Bellamy, and produced by Charles A. Pratt. The film stars Bo Svenson as Buford Pusser, replacing Joe Don Baker, who played Pusser in the first Walking Tall film. The on-screen title of the film is Part 2 Walking Tall: The Legend of Buford Pusser. The film was followed in 1977 by Walking Tall: Final Chapter, also starring Svenson.
Walking Tall: Final Chapter is the third installment of the Walking Tall film series. The film was directed by Jack Starrett. It opened in the U.S. on June 17, 1977; its on-screen title is Final Chapter: Walking Tall. All Walking Tall films were shot in Chester and Madison Counties, Tennessee; Buford Pusser was sheriff of McNairy County.
Euro War, also known as Macaroni Combat, Macaroni War, Spaghetti Combat, or Spaghetti War, is a broad subgenre of war film that emerged in the mid-1960s. The films were named Euro War because most were European co-productions, most notably and commonly by Italians, as indicated by the subgenre's other nicknames that draw parallels to those films within the mostly Italian Spaghetti Western genre.
Walking Tall is an American television drama series that ran on NBC in 1981 for one season of seven episodes. The first 5 episodes aired Saturday nights at 9:00 p.m.. The last 2 episodes aired Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m.. NBC reran all 7 episodes from April–June 1981. This one-hour show was a continuation of the 1973 film Walking Tall, which was based on the life of McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser. In this series, Pusser is the sheriff of the fictionalized McNeal County, Tennessee, fighting criminals each week in 1969.
John Peter Hooten is an American actor. He is best known for playing the title character in the television film Dr. Strange (1978).
The Kill Reflex also known as Soda Cracker is a 1989 American action-crime film directed by and starring Fred Williamson. The movie was written by Jaron Summers based on his own novel and was released in the United States on June 1, 1989.
Savage Attack is a war film directed by Tonino Valerii. It was written by Roberto Leoni after the success of several films based around veterans of the Vietnam War. The film starred Bo Svenson and Peter Hooten and was shot primarily in the Dominican Republic. It did not receive a theatrical release in Italy and was released on home video in West Germany as Brothers in Blood in 1987.
The Real Inglorious Bastards is a Canadian television documentary film, directed by Min Sook Lee and released in 2012. The film depicts Operation Greenup, a real-life World War II mission in which the American Office of Strategic Services parachuted Jewish agents Frederick Mayer and Hans Wijnberg, and German Army deserter Franz Weber, into Austria to spy on the Brenner Pass.
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