An actor once referred to be the ‘most beautiful boy in the world’ has passed away at the age of 70.
Björn Andrésen, the actor and musician born in Stockholm and renowned for his role in the 1971 film Death in Venice, unfortunately died over the weekend, as verified by Swedish media on Sunday, October 26.
Kristian Petri and Kristina Lindström, co-directors of the 2021 documentary The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, revealed his death on Saturday, October 25, while honoring him as a ‘brave individual.’
The reason of death remains undisclosed; he is survived by his 41-year-old daughter, Robine, and two grandchildren.
Andrésen attained international fame at the age of 15 by featuring in Luchino Visconti’s cinematic adaptation of German author Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella of the same title.
Who was Björn Andrésen?
Andrésen, born on January 26, 1955, experienced a tumultuous upbringing as his mother committed suicide while he was but 10 years old.
In his father’s absence, the young boy was reared by his grandmother, who he later said motivated him to pursue modeling and acting, as she ‘desired a celebrity in the family.’
His portrayal of Tadzio in Death in Venice, at the age of 15, transformed his life, catapulting him to international stardom, including in Japan. Subsequently, he was thrust into the limelight, admired and objectified by an enormous following he had not sought.
Why Björn Andrésen was called ‘the most beautiful boy in the world’
During the film’s debut, Visconti described him as ‘the most beautiful boy in the world,’ a moniker that Andrésen would contest throughout his life.
In a 2003 interview with The Guardian, Andrésen expressed that he felt like ‘an exotic animal in a cage,’ and subsequently remarked that Visconti’s film ‘screwed up my life rather adequately.’
“You’ve seen the pictures of The Beatles in America?” he told the outlet, referring to the ‘Beatlemania’ of the 1960s. “It was like that. There was a hysteria about it.”
At the age of 16, he asserted that the Italian director accompanied him to a gay nightclub with a group of men, an experience that he described as ‘extremely unpleasant’.
“I knew I couldn’t react. It would have been social suicide. But it was the first of many such encounters,” Andrésen said, “adding that he would have told the director to ‘f*** off’ if he were still alive.”
He additionally asserted that Visconti was indifferent to his emotions and would prioritize the work above all else.
As his career continued, he said that his part in Death in Venice followed him throughout, as he said in 2021: “Everything I ever do will be associated with that film. I mean, we’re still sitting here talking about it 50 years later.”
Björn Andrésen’s life after Death in Venice
He discovered his affinity for music, becoming a proficient pianist, while also engaging in advertising and performing in over 30 films and television programs during his life.
“My career is one of the few that started at the absolute top and then worked its way down,” he said. “That was lonely.”
Andrésen experienced continued tragedy when he lost his nine-month-old son, Elvin, to sudden infant death syndrome in 1986, alongside his then-wife, Suzanna Roman.
He descended into a prolonged despair after the catastrophe, although maintained the belief that they would be reunited ‘in the afterlife.’
Recently, he made a notable return to cinema in 2019, portraying a minor character in Ari Aster’s folk horror film, Midsommar, which he celebrated as ‘every boy’s desire to die in a horror film,’ according to The Mirror.