Kurt Wallander

Kurt Wallander
First appearance	Faceless Killers
Last appearance	The Troubled Man
Created by	Henning Mankell
Portrayed by	Rolf Lassgård Krister Henriksson Kenneth Branagh Gustaf Skarsgård Lennart Jähkel
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Police Officer
Spouse(s)	Mona Wallander
Children	Linda Wallander
Nationality	Swedish

Kurt Wallander (Swedish pronunciation: [valˈlanːdər]) is a fictional character created by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015). The protagonist of several mystery novels, set in and around the town of Ystad, 56 km (35 mi) south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Skåne. Wallander has been portrayed on screen by the actors Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson and Kenneth Branagh.

As a young police officer, he was nearly killed when a drunk, whom he was questioning, stabbed him with a butcher's knife (this is mentioned in the account of his first case). Wallander was once married, but his wife Mona left him and he has since had a difficult relationship with his rebellious only child, Linda, who barely survived a suicide attempt when she was fifteen. He also had issues with his late father, an artist who painted the same landscape 7,000 times for a living; the elder Wallander strongly disapproved of his son's decision to join the police force and frequently derided him for it.

Wallander is a great fan of the opera; while in his car he regularly listens to recordings of famous opera singers such as Maria Callas, and when he can find the time goes to opera performances, sometimes crossing over to Copenhagen, Denmark for this purpose. At one time, Wallander had dreamed of making opera his life, leaving the police force and becoming the impresario of his friend, Sten Widén, a tenor who aspired to sing opera. But Widén's voice was not good enough and the dream came to naught—a crushing disappointment in Wallander's life (as in Widén's).

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