Swedish postcard by Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm, no. 15. Photo: Ferd. Flodin.
Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/8. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern AB. Victor Sjöström and Edith Erastoff in Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). Caption: Outside society.
Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 992. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Edith Erastoff and Lars Hanson in Sången om den eldröda blomman/Flame of Life (Mauritz Stiller, 1919).
A hot-tempered young revolutionary woman
Edith Erastoff was born Edith Alma Frederika Lundberg in Helsinki (now Finland, then Russian Empire) in 1887. Her father was the organist Ludv. Malinovski of Polish origin. Her mother's maiden name was Lundberg. Edith trained as an actress at Anton Franck's theatre school in Helsinki.
She made her stage debut in 1904 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, where she was engaged until 1914. After her first marriage to the German-Finnish writer Georg Erastoff in 1906, she named herself Edith Erastoff. In 1914 she moved to Stockholm after being engaged at the Intima Teatern.
Erastoff had her breakthrough in 1915 in the role of a hot-tempered young revolutionary woman in the nihilist play 'Attentatet'. She remained at the Intima Teatrn until 1920. Then she acted at the Swedish Theatre in Stockholm from 1920 to 1922. She also guest-starred for Gösta Ekman at the Vasa Theatre in Stockholm.
Her theatre roles include roles in Scandinavian plays such as Henriette in August Strindberg's 'Brott och brott' (Crime And Crime), Gertrude in Holger Drachmann's 'Strandby folk', Madame Styf in Strindberg's 'Hemsöborna' (The Natives of Hemsö), and Dagny in Henrik Ibsen's 'Kämparna på Helgeland' (The Vikings at Helgeland).
She also played roles in the classic international repertory such as Antoinette in Molière's 'The Imaginary Invalid', Mrs Page in William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's 'The School of Scandal'.
Swedish postcard. Photo: Almberg and Preinitz, Stockholm.
Swedish postcard. Photo: Almberg and Preinitz, Stockholm, 1921. The postcard refers to Erastoff's part as the dancer Barberina in the play 'Kungens dansös' by Presber & Stein, which premiered on 18 November 1921 at Svenska Teatern, under the direction of Gunnar Klintberg.
Swedish postcard. Photo: Almberg and Preinitz, Stockholm, 1921. Edith Erastoff and possibly Lars Hanson in a Swedish stage play.
Swedish postcard. Photo: Almberg and Preinitz, Stockholm, 1921. Edith Erastoff and an unknown actor in a Swedish stage play.
The first film of Sweden's first Golden Age of cinema
Edith Erastoff worked for many years at Svenska Biografteatern. She made her film debut there in Gränsfolken/Brother Against Brother (Mauritz Stiller, 1913), starring Egil Eide and Richard Lund. The film was based on Emile Zola's novel 'La débâcle', set against the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris of 1870-1871. Long thought lost, a print of the film was discovered in Poland in 2009. In her second film with Stiller, Hämnaren/The Avenger ((Mauritz Stiller, 1915), she already had the female lead opposite John Ekman and Richard Lund. Hämnaren/The Avenger is a tale about an upcoming priest's rejection of a Jewish girl and her baby. The film was thought lost but was found by Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Germany in 2001. It was restored and presented at the 2003 edition of Cinema Ritrovato.
After Hämnaren, Erastoff did a series of films with actor-director Edmond Hansen, Hjälte mot sin vilja/Hero Against His Will (Edmond Hansen, 1915), Högsta vinsten/Highest Profit (Edmond Hansen, 1915), and Ålderdom och dårskap/Old Age and Folly (Edmond Hansen, 1916). Then she acted in Chanson triste (Konrad Tallroth, 1917), Envar sin egen lyckas smed/Every Man For Himself (Egil Eide, 1917), Fru Bonnets felsteg/Mrs Bonnet's misstep (Egil Eide, 1917), and Värdshusets hemlighet/The Secret of the Inn (Fritz Magnussen, 1917).
Erastoff starred in two blockbusters directed by Victor Sjöström, the war drama Terje Vigen/A Man There Was (1917) and Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (1918). In Terje Vigen/A Man There Was (Victor Sjöstrom, 1917), she was the British lady opposite Sjöström himself in the title role. Terje Vigen is considered the first film of Sweden's first Golden Age of cinema, highlighting the filming on location, and presenting nature as beauty but also as a menace (the sea) to the humans. In Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöstrom, 1918), it is the snow and the cold of the mountains as well as the hunger which threatens two young runaways, played by Erastoff and Sjöström. She and Victor Sjöström were lovers on and off-screen. She was pregnant, with his daughter while they were filming Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (1918). They married in 1922, after the death of her husband in 1918.
Her next part was that of Kyllikki opposite Lars Hanson as restless young womaniser Olof in Mauritz Stiller's drama, Sången om den eldröda blomman/The Song of the Red Flower (1919). After an argument with his father, Olof leaves home, becomes a raftsman and, with a life-threatening raft stunt, impresses Kyllikki, who initially considers him just another vagrant. When his wandering is over and he returns to Kylikki, she opposes her father's resistance and leaves with him to his family's farm.
Edith Erastoff's last silent film was Högre ändamål/Let No Man Put Asunder (Rune Carlsten, 1921), in which she was the wife of the parish priest, played by Ivan Nilsson - a renowned stage actor whose only screen presence this was. After marrying Victor Sjöström in 1922, Erastoff gave up stage and screen acting. She only returned to the sets once for her first and only sound film: Johan Ulfstjerna (Gustaf Edgren, 1936) opposite Gösta Ekman. With Sjöström, Erastoff had two daughters: actress Guje Lagerwall (1918-2019) and Caje Bjerke (1919-2002). The renowned Swedish theatre director and writer Gustaf Collijn called Erastoff "one of the most spirited and versatile actresses Sweden has ever had." Edith Erastoff-Sjöström died in 1945 at Sophiahemmet in Stockholm at the age of 59. She was buried at Norra begravningsplatsen outside Stockholm.
Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/1. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern AB. Victor Sjöström and Edith Erastoff in Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). Caption: At Halla's farm.
Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/4. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern AB. Victor Sjöström and Edith Erastoff in Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). Caption: After the confession of the crime.
Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/9. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern AB. Victor Sjöström and Edith Erastoff in Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). Caption: In the hut during the snowstorm.
Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 844/12 (final card and final scene of the film). Photo: Svenska Biografteatern AB. Victor Sjöström and Edith Erastoff in Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918). Caption: Death in the snowstorm.
Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 994. Photo: Svenska Biografteatern, Stockholm. Lars Hanson and Edith Erastoff in Sången om den eldröda blomman/Flame of Life (Mauritz Stiller, 1919). Before Olaf and Kylikki part, she says to the restless man: "When your years of wandering are over, come back. I will wait for you."
Sources: P.O. Qvist (Swedish Film Database - Swedish), Wikipedia (Swedish), and IMDb.
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