Bo Brundin, Swedish Actor in ‘The Great Waldo Pepper,’ Dies at 85

Bo Brundin, a Swedish actor who was best known for starring as a German war pilot opposite Robert Redford in “The Great Waldo Pepper” in 1975, died on Sept. 4 in his hometown of Uppsala, Sweden, Variety has confirmed. He was 85.

In “The Great Waldo Pepper,” Burdin played Ernst Kessler, a famous German pilot who is hired by film producers as a flying consultant. Toward the end of the film as Redford’s Waldo Pepper and Brundin’s Kessler are filming a wartime duel, the two begin actually dogfighting with sincerity and Kessler surrenders as the two salute each other and fly their separate ways. Brundin previously recalled the danger of filming those scenes because a stuntman had just crashed an hour before and suffered injuries to his forehead.

Elsewhere in his career, Burdin appeared in films such as “Around the World With Fanny Hill,” “Shoot the Sun Down” and “Raise the Titanic.” One of his earliest career roles came in an early stage production of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal,” though his role was ultimately taken up by Max von Sydow in the 1957 feature film based on the play.

Burdin was born on April 25, 1937, and pursued an acting career after being cast in Bergman’s stage production of “The Seventh Seal.” He moved to New York to chase his entertainment dreams and crossed paths with iconic figures like Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman along the way. He returned to Sweden in 2013 to live out his later years, and often spent time mentoring young actors. Although he was Swedish, he often played characters in films of German, Dutch or Russian descent.

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