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Entertainment & Arts

PHOTOS: Swedish stars in popular culture

"True Blood" Season 4 kicks off June 26 with vampire Eric Northman front and center (with a few witches too). The blood-sucking bad boy is played by Alexander Skarsgard, one of many Swedish faces to hit the pop-culture zeitgeist recently. Skarsgard, who gained ground in Hollywood with his role in "Generation Kill," was born in Stockholm in 1976. (Alexander is the son of actor Stellan Skarsgard, the only actual Swedish person in the main cast of the movie "Mamma Mia!," the musical comedy centered around ABBA's music.) In addition to "True Blood," look for the giant 6-foot-4 actor in the thriller "Straw Dogs," due out in September, and the sci-fi flick "Battleship" coming in 2012. But Skarsgard is not alone, here are some of the other Swedes gaining popularity in the U.S. -- Whitney Friedlander and Christie D'Zurilla

“True Blood” Season 4 kicks off June 26 with vampire Eric Northman front and center (with a few witches too). The blood-sucking bad boy is played by Alexander Skarsgard, one of many Swedish faces to hit the pop-culture zeitgeist recently.

Skarsgard, who gained ground in Hollywood with his role in “Generation Kill,” was born in Stockholm in 1976. (Alexander is the son of actor Stellan Skarsgard, the only actual Swedish person in the main cast of the movie “Mamma Mia!,” the musical comedy centered around ABBA’s music.) In addition to “True Blood,” look for the giant 6-foot-4 actor in the thriller “Straw Dogs,” due out in September, and the sci-fi flick “Battleship” coming in 2012.

But Skarsgard is not alone, here are some of the other Swedes gaining popularity in the U.S.

-- Whitney Friedlander and Christie D’Zurilla   (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

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Stieg Larsson

So there’s this book. Well, three books really. Maybe there’s a fourth. They center around this computer hacker with a photographic memory and a wicked dragon tattoo named Lisbeth Salander and her buddy journalist Mikael Blomqvist. And together, the two solve crimes. Stieg Larsson didn’t live to see them published, dying suddenly at age 50, from a heart attack in 2004.

The first book, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” was released in 2005, with the Swedish film adaptation released in 2009, followed by films of the other two books. Eventually, they all made their way over to the States.

As with “Let the Right One In,” there’s a U.S. film version in the works -- this one directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara. The film trailer touts it as the “feel bad movie of Christmas.” Surely, “Dragon” fans are hoping that’s the case.   (Jan Collsiöö / Associated Press)

Noomi Rapace

The actress plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and the other two Swedish films based on novelist Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy.

Although an American film adaptation of the three books is in the works with a new Lisbeth, Times staff writer John Horn writes “it’s difficult to picture anyone surpassing Rapace’s performance, an intrepid combination of physical, sexual and emotional truthfulness,” adding that Times film critic Betsy Sharkey wrote “watching Rapace burrow deep inside Lisbeth’s damaged mind, body and soul is its own sort of twisted pleasure.”

Fans will get a taste of Noomi’s talents once again, this time in the Robert Downey Jr.-starring “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” when it opens in December 2011.   (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Malin Akerman

Sure she spent most of her childhood in Canada, but the “Watchmen” star was born in Stockholm in 1978.  (Michael Buckner / Getty Images for Maui Film Festival)

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Robin Soderling

Showing good sportsmanship, Swedish tennis player Robin Soderling even asked the trainer to take care of opponent Rafael Nadal‘s blistered feet when the two squared off at Wimbledon in June. Presumably, this was before Nadal beat him with a score of 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1 -- and a lot of what Times writer Diane Pucin described as “guttural grunts ... cries of ‘Vamos’ accompanied by chest-thumping that seemed to make the seats rattle, and most of all his groundstrokes engineered to do nothing except hit the grass with a thunderous thud.”   (Glyn Kirk / AFP / Getty Images)

IKEA

Retailer IKEA, founded in Sweden in 1943, is known for affordable home furnishings and an abundance of Allen wrenches. In 2008, the company solicited 20 couples to participate in a special “Mamma Mia!”-themed group wedding and commitment ceremony, on its dime. The “IKEA ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’ Want to Get Married at the Mamma Mia! Wedding Event” was a joint effort with Universal Pictures. Entrants had to tell, in 250 words or less, why they should be selected -- and winners had to bring their own marriage license.

The ceremony took place on July 17, 2008, at the Burbank store, with a reception that included ABBA tunes and Swedish meatballs. We happen to know personally that at least one couple married at the event is still living happily ever after.  (David Pierson / Los Angeles Times])

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