Sven-Bertil Taube, a renowned Swedish actor, singer, and guitarist, briefly became an international action star, born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a family of Baltic German ancestry. His parents, Axel Evert Taube and Astrid Taube, were a songwriter and balladic troubadour, and a sculptress, respectively. Sven-Bertil attended a boarding school in Darien, Connecticut, and received further musical training in Stockholm.
He launched his recording career in 1954 with the release of his debut album, "Swedish folk songs & ballads," which featured a song composed by his father. Between 1959 and 1962, Taube studied acting at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in Sweden, where he made his stage debut in Shakespearean roles. He then transitioned to playing male leads in Swedish film productions, opposite actresses Agneta Ekmanner and Essy Persson.
In 1969, Taube moved to London and made his stage debut in a West End musical, followed by a role as Queen Victoria's ill-fated husband in "I and Albert" at the Piccadilly Theatre. His international film career took off with "Puppet on a Chain" (1971),a James Bond-style thriller, in which he played a Dutch-born U.S. agent on the hunt for a gang of murderous heroin dealers in Amsterdam.
Taube's other international credits include adventure dramas set in Africa, horror films, and espionage series. He has also played notable roles in films like "The Eagle Has Landed" (1976),"Codename: Kyril" (1988),and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2009). Taube received two Swedish Guldbagge Awards for Best Actor for his performances in "Händerna" (1994) and "A One-Way Trip to Antibes" (2011).
Taube was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration in 2005 and his eyesight continued to deteriorate, leading to his retirement from acting in 2017. He died of natural causes on November 2022 in London.
