Hasse Ekman (10 September 1915 – 15 February 2004) was a Swedish director, actor, writer and producer for film, stage and television.

Biography

Hasse Ekman is probably Sweden's most successful and critically acclaimed film director from the period after Sjöström and Stiller and prior to Ingmar Bergman, peaking between the mid-1940s and 1950. He was greatly influenced by filmmaker Orson Welles and also by episodic-films. His most successful film as a director is often said to be the 1950 film Flicka och hyacinter (Girl with Hyacinths), a crime/mystery drama about a young woman committing suicide by hanging herself in her apartment. His 1957 film Summer Place Wanted was entered into the 1st Moscow International Film Festival.

Hasse Ekman is part of the prominent "Ekman acting family" in Sweden: He was the son of Swedish star actor Gösta Ekman (senior) and father of actor Gösta Ekman (junior), actor Stefan Ekman and stage/film director Mikael Ekman. He is the grandfather of actress Sanna Ekman.

As an actor Ekman appeared in most of his own films, as the leading man and in a number of strong supporting roles, and he also acted in three early Ingmar Bergman films (Prison, Thirst and Sawdust and Tinsel). He also played opposite his famous father in Intermezzo, the original Swedish 1936 film starring Ingrid Bergman as the female lead. Overall he appeared in fifty Swedish films.