Stellan Skarsgard has firmed his position as the successor to Max von Sydow and Erland Josephson with his sensitive portrayal of Jan, the oil rig worker who asks his wife (Emily Watson to sacrifice her life for him in Lars von Trier's art-house hit "Breaking the Waves" (1996). The handsome Swede began acting as a teenager and won recognition by age 16 for his co-starring role in the TV series "Bombi Bitt." He then spent 16 years working on stage with the Royal Dramatic Theatre Company in Stockholm, excelling in classic plays and alternating with the occasional film appearance—"Anita, Swedish Nymphet" (1973) and "Tabu" (1976). Skarsgard became firmly established in features with his award-winning turn in "The Simple-Minded Murderer" (1982). By the end of the 1980s, he had begun to appear in international films, portraying an engineer in Philip Kaufman's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988) and a Soviet submarine commander in John McTiernan's "The Hunt for Red October" (1991). In 1996, he landed the male half of the title role in "Harry and Sonja" and was a dirty, mean seal hunter in "Zero Kelvin." The year 1997 shaped up to be the actor's biggest thus far as he filmed roles in the British comedy-drama "My Son the Fanatic;" "Savior," a film set against the backdrop of the Bosnian conflict; Steven Spielberg's period drama "Amistad" and, in one of his best-known roles, as a professor who mentors math whiz Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting" (1997). After the latter role, mainstream Hollywood increasingly beckoned the actor, casting him in middlebrow thrillers such as "Ronin" (1998), "Deep Blue Sea" (1999), "The Glass House" (2001), "The House on Turk Street" and "City of Ghosts" (both 2002), "King Arthur" (2004), experimental indies like Alain Berliner's "Passion of Mind" (2000) and Mike Figgis' "Timecode" (2000). Among a steady slate of non-Hollywood projects, the actor also reunited with Von Trier for the writer-director's acclaimed "Dancer in the Dark" (2000), with Skarsgard in a supporting role. Next they teamed on the unusual Danish television event "D-dag" (aka "D Day") (2000) which aired live on New Year's Eve before yet another reuniting on "Dogville" (2003). In this dark film, Skarsgard portrayed one of the townspeople who offered refuge to a mysterious fugitive (Nicole Kidman, but at an awful price. While he has appeared in numerous Swedish television projects, Skarsgard made few forays onto the small screen in America. He appeared in the never-was series, “Parker Kane” (NBC, 1990), starred as a union organizer who aides a coal miner’s daughter (Holly Hunter) in spearheading a long, bloody labor strike in “Harlan County War” (Showtime, 2000) and played Theseus, king of Athens, in the made-for-cable miniseries, “Helen of Troy” (USA, 2003). Given his career similarities to Max von Sydow, it came as no surprise that Skarsgard was cast as the younger version of Von Sydow's character in "The Exorcist" for the 2004 prequel, "Exorcist: The Beginning." Hired by the film's original director, Paul Schrader, to play a young Father Merrin, Skarsgard remained the only original Schrader hire after the studio fired the director and the bulk of his cast before putting Renny Harlin in charge. In “King Arthur” (2004), Antoine Fuqua’s so-called more realistic take on the ancient legend, Skarsgard was the ruthless and bloody-minded leader of a band of Saxons invading the British Isles at a time when the Romans were rolling up the empire, leaving its people—including a reluctant officer (Clive Owen—to fend for themselves. He next appeared in “Beowulf & Grendel” (2005), playing King Hrothgar of the Danes whose kingdom needs assistance from a Norse warrior to fend off the frightful monster, Grendel. Skarsgard then played the undead pirate Bootstrap Bill, father to Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (2006), a harrowing, energetic and worthy addition to the swashbuckling franchise that went on to break several box office records, including biggest single-day gross and biggest opening weekend ever, paving the way for the third installment, “Pirates of the Caribbean 3,” which was shot simultaneously with the second.