Jon Skolmen

Jon Skolmen
Jon Skolmen, September 2010
Born	(1940-11-01) 1 November 1940 (age 76) Oslo, Norway

Jon Skolmen (born 1 November 1940) is a Norwegian actor and comedian. Between 1963 and 1981, he was employed by the Norwegian state broadcasting company NRK, where he most notably co-wrote and appeared in The Nor-Way to Broadcasting alongside Trond Kirkvaag, which won the Golden Rose of Montreux and Chaplin Award at the Montreux Television Festival in 1976.

Skolmen also found a big audience in neighbouring Sweden co-starring in the five Sällskapsresan films as Ole Bramserud, the Norwegian sidekick of main character Stig Helmer-Olsson who was played by Swedish actor Lasse Åberg. In the 1980s he also co-starred in the wildly popular Swedish sketch comedy show Nöjesmassakern.

In 2007, Skolmen again collaborated with his former partner Trond Kirkvaag, when he starred in the NRK sitcom Luftens helter, which was created shortly before Kirkvaag's death.

Jon Skolmen is the father of actors Christian and Tine Skolmen, brother of director Eli Skolmen Ryg and uncle of actors Anne Ryg and Hege Schøyen, with whom he played in the 1991 Swedish comedy Den ofrivillige golfaren. In the film, Skolmen and Schøyen were supposed to play lovers. The characters' on-screen relationship was toned down to a near friendship to make the two actors less uncomfortable.

He received the Norwegian Comedy Award's honorary prize for lifetime achievement in 2009. Skolmen has also appeared on British children's television. In 1971 he presented Play School for the BBC, though for one week only. In 1980 he appeared in a one-off special co-produced by the BBC and NRK called Jon, Brian, Kirsti and Jon in which he appeared with his compatriot Kirsti Sparboe, and the British performers Brian Cant (with whom Skolmen co-wrote the script) and Jonathan Cohen.