Valdemar Psilander on AllMovie

Slightly corpulent by modern standards, Danish actor Valdemar Psilander became one of the screen's first European matinee idols. Psilander entered films in 1909 and became an international celebrity opposite Asta Nielsen ("Die Asta") in the melodrama Balletdanserinden (1911) and Betty Nansen in Revolutionsbryllup (1913). Nordisk Film's leading male star, Psilander excelled in that Scandinavian specialty, the erotic, slightly sensationalistic melodrama. He offered perhaps his finest performance in A.W. Sandberg's quite different Klovnen, which was I Pagliacci in a Danish setting. Hollywood was beginning to show interest when Psilander suddenly died, at the young age of 33.