Stefán Karl Stefánsson

Stefán Karl Stefánsson (; ; 10 July 1975 – 21 August 2018) was an Icelandic actor and singer. He was best known for playing antagonist Robbie Rotten on the children's television series LazyTown.

Career
Stefán Karl's career started in 1994. At the age of 19, he worked as a puppeteer for television. During his years as a puppeteer, he had also been studying at the Drama Academy of Iceland. However, he was not satisfied with how Iceland views their drama standards. He remembered that his principal at his high school said that "acting is not about making faces and changing your face". He did not agree with his high school principal.

Later, Stefán Karl had been invited by Magnús Scheving, an Icelandic gymnast, to portray one of the characters in the second LazyTown play. Scheving created the plays because he was concerned that Iceland's younger generation is not doing enough exercise. Stefán Karl explained that "[Scheving] wanted the kids to get healthier, so he created this musical called LazyTown. He played Sportacus, the fitness fanatic, and I was Robbie Rotten, the guy who liked to stay indoors and sleep". After initial success with the musical, Nickelodeon eventually made a deal with the creators of LazyTown to air the first 40 episodes of LazyTown along with a special studio built in Iceland. During the first few years of LazyTown in the early 2000s, Stefán Karl initially knew no English, but soon became fluent.

Personal life 
Stefán Karl lived in Los Angeles with his wife Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir, three daughters, and one son. In June 2018, he was awarded the Order of the Falcon. He had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette syndrome.

Illness and death
Stefán Karl announced in October 2016 that he had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer. On the same month, GoFundMe campaign was subsequently created by LazyTown head writer Mark Valenti to pay his living costs when he became too ill to work. The campaign was popularized by various YouTube users uploading parodies of Stefán Karl's work. This eventually made the songs "We Are Number One" and "The Mine Song" from LazyTown become Internet memes. In August 2017, Stefán Karl stated he was in remission. He clarified on his GoFundMe campaign that while his metastases had been removed after successful liver surgery in June 2017, he still had the disease and had refused further adjuvant therapy.

In March 2018, Stefán Karl announced the cancer had returned and was deemed inoperable and said that he was undergoing chemotherapy to increase the length of his life. In April 2018, he announced that he personally chose to stop his chemotherapy, and then began to shut down all his social media accounts.

He died on 21 August 2018 at the age of 43. His wife stated that Stefansson didn't want to a funeral when he died. Instead, she had said that his body will be secretly scattered into a distant ocean. 

Legacy
It was announced by his manager, Cheryl Edison, that the Stefán Karl Academy & Center for the Performing Arts will be opened in Switzerland in the year 2019 as a memorial to his career.

 Filmography 
Stefán Karl has been credited in various works including plays, television series, films, and games.

 Theater 
 Year Title Role Notes 1997–99 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling 1998–99 Palace of Crows by Einar Örn Gunnarsson 1998–99 Ivanov by Anton Chekhov 1999–2000 1000 Island Dressing by Hallgrímur Helgason 1999–2000 Little Shop of HorrorsOrin Scrivello, D.D.S. 1999–2000 A Midsummer Night's Dream 1999–2000 Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ by Magnús Scheving and Sigurdur Sigurjónsson Glanni Glæpur (Robbie Rotten) Primary antagonist 2000–01 Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones 2000–01 Singin' in the Rain by Comden, Green, Freed and BrownCosmo Brown 2000–02The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov 2001–02 Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand 2002–03 Noises Off by Michael Frayn 2002–03 Life x 3 by Yasmina Reza 2008–15 Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical The Grinch Baltimore and Boston (2008)Los Angeles (2009)North American tour (2010–14)Worcester, Massachusetts and Appleton, Wisconsin (2015)

 Films 
According to IMDb:
 Year Title Role Notes 1994 Áramótaskaup New Reporter, many others Debut filmTV film 1995 Privacy Student First feature film 1999 Skaupið: 1999 Robbie Williams, many others TV film 2001 Regina Manni – Police Officer 2001 Áramótaskaup TV film 2002 Stella for Office Ingimundur 2002 Litla lirfan ljóta The Worm 2002 Áramótaskaup Many roles TV film 2006 Night at the Museum Miscellaneous crew 2007 Anna and the Moods Voiceover 2009 Jóhannes Diddi 2011 Thor Miscellaneous crew 2011 Polite People Lárus Skjaldarson Lead actor 2014Harry Og Heimir Símon

 Television 
 Year Title Role Notes 1998 Baking Trouble Channel 1 program 1999 God Exists... And Love Channel 1Drama Academy of Iceland 2000 Angel No. 5503288 Channel 1 program 2000 Car Mechanic Sketches for Eurovision Channel 1 program 2000 Cars Can Fly Channel 1 program 2004–2007; 2013–2014 LazyTown Robbie Rotten Main villain 2015 Titch and Ted Do Maths

 Video games 
 Year Title Role Notes 2017 For Honor Viking Soldier 

 References 

Other websites

Category:1975 births
Category:2018 deaths
Category:Icelandic singers
Category:Icelandic movie actors
Category:Television actors
Category:Stage actors
Category:Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma