Ola Rapace
Sonny Ola Rapace Jawo (; né Pär Ola Norell; born 3 December 1971) is a Swedish actor. Early life. Ola Rapace was born on the 3rd of December 1971 in Tyresö, a suburb southeast of Stockholm, Sweden and named Pär Ola Norell. Both parents were academics. He grew up mainly in Vallentuna, a middle-class suburb north of Stockholm. When he was one year old, his parents separated, and he was raised by his father. He grew up playing football and listening to heavy metal. While studying philosophy at the University of Montpellier in France, he discovered acting. Career . His first screen role was in Lukas Moodysson's film "Together", a bittersweet comedy about hippie-socialist values set in a Stockholm homeshare commune. The film won several awards at international film festivals, including the Paris Film Festival Special Jury Prize, and Philadelphia Film Festival Jury Award. Rapace's big breakthrough came with the popular TV series "Tusenbröder" about a group of handymen who become involved with organised crime. Immediately followed the role as Stefan Lindman in "Wallander", which was based on Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander books. He continued with several police and crime-related TV series, including portraying  Daniel Nordström in the Danish police TV show "Anna Pihl", "Crimes of Passion", a crime drama set in 1950's rural Sweden, "Farang" about a Scandinavian ex-convict living in Thailand and "Hassel", an updated dark and gritty cop show based on a classic series of books from the '70s and '80s. This was a cop show he also executive produced, and "Section Zéro", a French science fiction influenced cop drama. While he has worked on many cop shows, Rapace has been very critical of the genre. In 2012 he told Cafe Magazine: "All the "Wallander" and "Beck" films are  worthless. There is no credibility, it does not work to investigate thousands of murders in Ystad year after year. In the end it becomes a joke, and the quality becomes so low that one has no other option but to shut down the production". His first English-language film was the 2004 independent movie "Rancid" starring Matthew Settle (from "Band of Brothers" and "Gossip Girl"). A much bigger project was the 2012 James Bond film "Skyfall", where he portrayed the hitman "Patrice". Rapace lived in Paris from 2015-2020 and has since worked on Swedish, French and international projects. In  2016, he starred in the French science fiction film "Ares" and soon after followed "", a French TV-series about a para-military police squad in the near future. Rapace had a supporting role as Major Gibson in Luc Besson's 2017 French/American big budget comic book/science fiction film "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets". In 2018 Rapace was one of the main antagonists in series 3 of Netflix/BBC's popular Viking drama "The Last Kingdom" as "Jarl Sigurd Bloodhair". Rapace joined the cast of "Below the Surface" ("Gidseltagningen"), a Danish drama about 15 innocent people  held hostage underground in a subway train, as "Yusef" when it returned for a second series in 2019. Rapace starred alongside Kellan Lutz in "Divertimento", an English language French thriller that came out in 2020. Reality television. Rapace was one of the participants in SVT's reality series Maestro, Where Swedish celebrities were taught the basics of conducting a classical orchestra. The series aired in late summer and autumn 2011. He was one of 5 Swedish celebrities featured in 2020 edition of popular TV series "Stars at the Castle". The basis of the show is: five famous people live together  in a castle or manor house for five days. Each day focuses on one person and their career, as they eat dinners and they discuss their life and career, and the other celebrities ask questions. A few months before the announcement of Rapace joining the 2020 season, he had criticized this specific reality television show. In 2021 Swedish Discovery+ announced he was one of several celebrities, including electropop musician Kleerup, and reality TV stars Jackie Ferm and Håkan Hallin, who would join the unscripted TV-series "Treatment", about mental illness and addiction problems. Discovery Networks Sweden describes the series as  individually adapted medical and therapeutic treatments, composed and led by addiction doctors and therapists on an archipelago island. Personal life. Rapace married actress Noomi Rapace in 2001, divorcing in 2011; they have a son, Lev, who was born in 2003. Together they chose the surname Rapace after they were married, which means "bird of prey" in French and Italian. Rapace also has a daughter, Line, born in 1999, together with the actress Malin Morgan. Rapace lived in France for several years and speaks fluent French. For years Ola and Noomi were preyed upon by Swedish tabloids. Noomi's international career  was taking off, and she and Ola, who was never afraid of an argument, were frequently featured in gossip magazines and tabloids. He has had several run-ins with the law, including spending the night in a jail in Austria. In October 2008, he was arrested for possession of cocaine and steroids, which resulted in a fine for a minor drug offence in April 2009. He moved to Paris, France in 2015, and returned to Sweden after 5 years after losing most of his wealth after an audit by French Tax Authorities. In the podcast "Helt ärligt med Sebastian Stakset  released on April 4, 2020 Rapace explained how, during the filming of French TV-series ", he and the series creator Olivier Marchal used cocaine every night after filming, and the TV series ended up being really depressing. In November 2020 real estate magazine Hem & Hyra" reported he was one of several people suing a deceased landlord and the story revealed how apartment contracts were sold for millions. Rapace had paid 1,7 million SEK in cash to the landlord, and was now asking for the money back from the deceased landlord's estate. In May 2019 he married Sonja Jawo, in  Paris. Sonja Jawo is the older sister of Aino Jawo, of Swedish electropop duo "Icona pop". They divorced in the summer of 2021. In 2020, Rapace published his autobiography "Romeo: Min flykt i fem akter".