Peter Stormare

(born August 27 1953) is a Swedish-American film, stage, voice and television actor as well as a theatrical director and playwright. Stormare was born in Kumla, Närke, Sweden, the son of Teodolinda (née Laparelli) and Renato Storm. He grew up in Arbrå, Hälsingland, Sweden as Peter Ingvar Rolf Storm, but changed his surname when he discovered he shared it with a senior student at the acting academy. His original choice of name, Retep Mrots (his own name spelled backwards), was rejected. Just like "storm" (a word which means the same in Swedish as in English), "stormare" is a Swedish word, meaning "stormer". Stormare began his career with the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre, to which he belonged for eleven years. In 1990 he took a leading position (Associate Artistic Director) at the Tokyo Globe Theatre and made a name for himself through various Shakespeare performances includingHamlet. Three years later, he went to New York and mainly took part there in English language productions.... full article at wikipedia