Knut Almlöf

Who was Knut Almlöf?

Knut Almlöf, was a Swedish actor, considered to one of the most notable actors on the Swedish stage in the second half of the 19th century.

He was the son of the actors Nils Almlöf and Brita Catharina Cederberg, and had an early enthusiasm to become an actor. His father, one of his country's most famous actors, did not want him to become an actor, and sent him to be educated to a priest in Uppsala. His mother died when he was nine, and the year after, his father remarried Charlotta Ficker, a celebrated actress in flirtatious parts of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. She encouraged Knut in his interest for the theatre, and after his graduation in 1848, they convinced his father about his preference. In 1851, he joined the troupe of Pierre Deland, where he married his colleague Betty Deland. He was employed at the theatre Mindre teatern in Stockholm in 1861 and in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1863. He had a natural way of acting and was considered a genius in comedy. In 1874–1877, he was joint principal of Dramatens elevskola with his wife. he took the death of his wife 1882 very hard and left the theatre, but continued to act as a guest artist until 1897.