Thommy Berggren

Thommy Berggren
Berggren with Pia Degermark in 1967.
Born	Tommy William Berggren (1937-08-12) 12 August 1937 (age 79) Mölndal, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1959–2003
Partner(s)	Monika Ahlberg
Children	3

Thommy Berggren, né Tommy William Berggren (born 12 August 1937) is a Swedish actor. He is known for having starred in several films directed by Bo Widerberg, and was often considered as one of the foremost Swedish film and theatre actors from the early 1960s to the mid-2000s when he retired.

He starred in the Oscar nominated Raven's End (1963), directed by Widerberg. He also starred in the 1992 Sunday's Children, which was directed by Daniel Bergman and written by Ingmar Bergman.

Berggren faced a number of difficulties in his early life, but he was able to use them as inspiration, and they would eventually prove to be influential in his future career. Apart from being considered one of Sweden's finest actors, he is also a devoted father of three children.

Berggren was born on 12 August 1937, in Mölndal, Sweden, an impoverished working class district. His father, a sailor by trade and a socialist, was supportive of and heavily involved with the worker's rights movement in Sweden. His mother was employed at the local factory and was similarly politically inclined. When he was born, he suffered with a disease of the lungs, which caused him to have to stay in a hospital facility for one year. As if poverty were not difficult enough, the young Thommy also had to deal with the fact that his father suffered from a severe addiction to alcohol. In Stefan Jarl's 2002 film The Bricklayer, a documentary about Thommy's life and career, he recounted an incident in which he had walked a great distance to meet his father at a train station, only to discover that he would not keep the promised appointment with his son. Instead, he had remained in town, drinking.

However, in spite of his difficult childhood, Berggren did not hold any resentment toward his parents. He openly chose to defend his father, stating that while he may have suffered with an addiction to alcohol, he was not aggressive or abusive in any way as a result, and that both of his parents were good people. In The Bricklayer Berggren's stories and anecdotes of his parents are imbued with a deep love and humor. Eventually, it would be his father, and his early life spent among the poor and the working class, that would prove to be the greatest influence on his future life and career.