Björn Johan Andrésen, Swedish actor and musician best known for his role as Tadzio Moes in 1971’s Death in Venice, has died at the age of seventy. Andrésen passed away on Saturday, October 25th, as Kristian Petri confirmed the news with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Petri co-directed the 2021 documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, which focused on Andrésen’s sudden rise to fame and its effects. The actor was just fifteen years old when he was cast in Luchino Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Death in Venice as a young boy; an older man, played by Dirk Bogarde, becomes obsessed with him. At the film’s premiere, Visconti dubbed Andrésen “the most beautiful boy in the world,” a label that unfortunately followed him throughout his career.
Andrésen has since spoken about his negative experience working with Visconti and how he will be forever known for that role. Opening up in an interview with The Guardian in 2021, Andrésen said about the director that he “was the sort of cultural predator who would sacrifice anything or anyone for the world.” The actor made his feelings about the film equally known, stating, “It has screwed up my life quite decently. Everything I ever do will be associated with that film.”
After Death in Venice was released, Andrésen became an instant cultural icon in modeling and commercial work; he was one of the influences on the popular Bishōnen “beautiful boy” aesthetic. Andrésen was also an accomplished musician and pianist, releasing several pop songs in Japan and touring regularly with the Sven Erics dance band. He had a small role as Dan in Ari Aster 2019’s folk horror Midsommar.
Andrésen’s father passed away in an accident when the boy was young, and his mother died by suicide when Andrésen was ten. The actor has two children with Susanna Roman, a poet whom he was married to from 1983 to 1987, a daughter named Robine and a son named Elvin, who died from sudden infant death syndrome at nine months, after Andrésen fell into a deep depression and his alcohol abuse worsened.
Andrésen is survived by his daughter and two granddaughters, Lo and Nike.
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