Pierre Lindstedt

Pierre Ernst Vilhelm Lindstedt was born on 15 August 1943 on Dalarö, in the Stockholm archipelago. His father was the actor and comedian Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt and his mother was Tully Johansson. Although he grew up around the stage, he did not plan to become an actor and never attended drama school. He started out helping his father and Arne Källerud with their shows at the Nöjeskatten theatre, then worked as a stagehand at Dramaten and the China theatre in Stockholm and as a runner at SF Studios, learning, as he put it, by watching and paying attention.

Lindstedt's first screen appearances were brief, but his part in Ingvar Skogsberg's film school graduation film Okay sailor okay (1968) attracted attention. He and his father also played motel porters in the poorly received television series Mysinge motell (1968). A small role in Bo Widerberg's Ådalen 31 (1969) proved decisive: Widerberg recommended him to Jan Troell, who cast him as the farmhand Arvid in The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972). It was his breakthrough, and he received the Kurt Linder scholarship in 1971 and the film critics' scholarship in 1972.

After a spell out of work, when he took a job in a warehouse, a television role opposite Palle Granditsky led to an engagement at Uppsala City Theatre, where he made his stage debut in The Government Inspector in 1972. He worked with Riksteatern in 1974, including in Jeppe på berget, and from 1976 to 1993 was a member of the ensemble at Malmö City Theatre, where his roles included Toke in the musical Röde Orm in 1978 and parts in Guys and Dolls, La Cage aux Folles, Peer Gynt and Twelfth Night. When the theatre was reorganised in 1993 he and six colleagues founded Teater Glädjehuset in Malmö.

On television he became a favourite with younger audiences as the ghost Staffan in the SVT Christmas calendar Mysteriet på Greveholm (1996), returning in Mysteriet på Greveholm: Grevens återkomst (2012). He played Bengt-Hans in the comedy Pistvakt (1998 and 2000) and appeared in films including Drömkåken (1993), Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus (1997), the Pettson and Findus films and Beck: Advokaten (2007). His screen career spanned 1966 to 2012.

Lindstedt was married to the actress Karin Grandin, born in 1947, with whom he co-founded Teater Glädjehuset. In a 2013 interview with Dagens Nyheter he said that after more than fifty years he had had enough of evening work, explaining that he had no driving licence and could not expect his wife to drive him back and forth.

Pierre Lindstedt died on Saturday 10 October 2026 at the age of 83. His family confirmed his death to Expressen, and it was reported by SVT, Aftonbladet and TV4 on 12 October 2026. No cause of death was made public.

Lindstedt was celebrated for a natural, everyday quality in his acting. Svenska Dagbladet's Poppe Prize, which he received in 1994, praised his outstanding ability to portray the odd but still so ordinary person subtly, warmly, humorously and with small means. For many Swedes he remains Arvid of The Emigrants, and for a generation of children the gentle ghost Staffan of Greveholm.