Toralv Maurstad

Toralv Maurstad (born 24 November 1926 in Bærum, Norway) is a prominent Norwegian stage, screen, and television actor. Regarded by many as the leading Norwegian actor of his generation, he is the son of the highly regarded actor Alfred Maurstad and actress Tordis Maurstad, and half-brother of actress Mari Maurstad.

Maurstad graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London in 1949. Through the years he has not only worked as a leading actor but is also a respected stage director, and was the head of Oslo Nye Teater (Oslo New Theatre) from 1967 to 1978 and most notably the head of Norway's National Theatre Nationaltheatret from 1978 to 1986. He is considered perhaps the greatest interpreter of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, having played the part numerous times (he even performed excerpts from the play as late as the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City).

His only American film appearance to date was the 1970 box office and critical disappointment Song of Norway, a musical about the life of composer Edvard Grieg co-starring Florence Henderson. It was based on the 1944 Broadway musical.

A testament to his position in Norwegian theatre came when in the 1970s he co-starred with Liv Ullmann in a critically acclaimed Broadway-staging of Ibsen's A Doll's House in New York City.

In 1974 the King of Norway made him a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and in March 2007, Maurstad was appointed a Commander of the Order of St. Olav.

Personal life

Maurstad's first wife was the Swedish actress Eva Henning. He married his third wife, actress Beate Eriksen, on New Year's Eve 1999, when she was 39 and he was 73.^[1] In 2001, Eriksen's application for adopting a child was rejected because Maurstad was considered to be too old. According to Norwegian rules, people who intend to adopt a child should be between 25 and 45, and Maurstad was 74.^[2]

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