{{Short description|Swedish actor (born 1943)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox person | image = Lou Castel-1965.png | caption = Castel in ''Fists in the Pocket'' (1965) | name = Lou Castel | birth_name = Ulv Quarzell | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1943|5|28|df=y}} | birth_place = Bogotá, Colombia | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1963–present }} '''Lou Castel''' (born '''Ulv Quarzell'''; 28 May 1943) is a Swedish actor who worked in Italian films.<ref name=tele>{{cite web|work=Télérama|title=Lou Castel, le comédien banni par l'Italie|url=https://www.telerama.fr/cinema/lou-castel-le-comedien-banni-par-l-italie,144800.php|date=13 July 2016}}</ref> He had his breakthrough role in Marco Bellocchio's ''Fists in the Pocket'' (1965), which was followed by several spaghetti westerns, in particular Carlo Lizzani's ''Requiescant'' (1967) and Damiano Damiani's ''A Bullet for the General'' (1967), and the drama ''Come Play with Me'' (1968). Castel's career in Italy was disrupted in the early 1970s by his far-left activism but he later had a long career as a character actor in European cinema.
==Life and career== The son of a Swedish father and an Irish mother, Castel was born '''Ulv Quarzell''' in Bogotá, Colombia, where his father was working as a diplomat. He and his twin brother grew up in Cartagena.<ref name=tele/>
When Castel was 6, his parents separated. He followed his mother to Europe and went to school in London, very briefly at Dartington Hall School with his sister Solveig, then in Stockholm. He subsequently went to live in Rome where his mother was working in the local film industry. A communist, Castel's mother also introduced her son to politics.<ref name=tele/>
Interested in acting from an early age, he attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, but was quickly kicked out. His first movie role was as an uncredited extra in ''The Leopard'' (1963). Two years later, he gained international fame for his performance in ''Fists in the Pocket'', in which he played the epileptic Alessandro, who murders his mother and his brother. His career in Italy included arthouse pictures, but also Spaghetti Westerns and also softcore erotica.<ref name=tele/> He enjoyed particular success with his starring roles in Damiano Damiani's ''A Bullet for the General'' (1967), Salvatore Samperi's ''Come Play with Me'' (1968) and Umberto Lenzi's ''Orgasmo'' (1969). He later played Jeff, the temperamental bisexual film director in the German production ''Beware of a Holy Whore'' (1971), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
While living in Italy, Castel became involved in a maoist organization, the Union of Italian Communists (Marxist–Leninist). As Italy was going through the Years of Lead period, he was eventually considered an undesirable alien. In 1972, he was deported to Sweden where he no longer had any acquaintances. For a time, he had to rely on subsidies sent to him from Italy by his organization. However, he quickly bounced back and appeared, mostly as a character actor, in various European films, directed by filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Claude Chabrol.<ref name=tele/>
Castel settled in France in the early 1990s.<ref name=tele/> Though the quality of the films he acted in were quite disparate, ranging from arthouse films to cheap exploitation, Castel had a preference for roles that reflected his extreme leftist beliefs. He portrayed left-wing terrorists in ''Nada'' (1974), ''The Cassandra Crossing'' (1976), ''Could It Happen Here?'' (1977) and ''Year of the Gun'' (1991).
He has a son from the actress Marcella Michelangeli.<ref name=tele/>
A polyglot, Castel speaks a number of languages but jokes that he has no real natural mother tongue and speaks every language with an accent, except for Swedish which he no longer has opportunities to use.<ref name=tele/>
==Selected filmography== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Director ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- |1963 |''The Leopard'' |Party Guest |Luchino Visconti |Uncredited |- |1965 |''Fists in the Pocket'' |Alessandro |Marco Bellocchio | |- |1966 |''Francesco di Assisi'' |Francis of Assisi |Liliana Cavani |TV film |- |rowspan=2|1967 |''A Bullet for the General'' |Bill 'Niño' Tate |Damiano Damiani | |- |''Requiescant'' |Requiescant |Carlo Lizzani | |- |rowspan=5|1968 |''The Protagonists'' |Taddeu |Marcello Fondato | |- |''Come Play with Me'' |Alvise |Salvatore Samperi | |- |''Galileo'' |Friar, Young monk of the Vatican |Liliana Cavani | |- |''{{Interlanguage link|Lucrezia (1968 film)|it|3=Lucrezia (film)|lt=Lucrezia}}'' |Cesare Borgia |Osvaldo Civirani | |- |''La prova generale'' | |Romano Scavolini | |- |1969 |''Orgasmo'' |Peter Donovan |Umberto Lenzi | |- |rowspan=3|1970 |''{{Interlanguage link|Con quale amore, con quanto amore|it}}'' |Ernesto |Pasquale Festa Campanile | |- |''Bocche cucite'' |Carmelo La Manna |Pino Tosini | |- |''Matalo!'' |Ray |Cesare Canevari | |- |1971 |''Beware of a Holy Whore'' |Jeff, the director |Rainer Werner Fassbinder | |- |rowspan=2|1972 |''{{Interlanguage link|Nel nome del padre|it|3=Nel nome del padre (film 1972)|lt=Nel nome del padre}}'' |Salvatore |Marco Bellocchio | |- |''Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why?'' |Carlo |Giuseppe Vari | |- |1973 |''The Scarlet Letter'' |Rev. Dimmesdale |Wim Wenders | |- |rowspan=3|1974 |''Nada'' |D'Arey |Claude Chabrol | |- |''Gangsterfilmen'' |Simon |Lars G. Thelestam | |- |''{{ill|Output (film)|de|3=Output (Film)|lt=Output}}'' |Gorski |Michael Fengler | |- |1975 |''Faccia di spia'' |The torturer |Giuseppe Ferrara | |- |rowspan=3|1976 |''Pure as a Lily'' |Luciano |Franco Rossi | |- |''The Cassandra Crossing'' |Swedish terrorist |George P. Cosmatos | |- |''Caro Michele'' |Osvaldo |Mario Monicelli | |- |rowspan=6|1977 |''Change of Sex'' |Durán |Vicente Aranda | |- |''Pigs Have Wings'' |Marcello |Paolo Pietrangeli | |- |''The American Friend'' |Rodolphe |Wim Wenders | |- |''Closet Children'' |Nicola |Benoît Jacquot | |- |''Could It Happen Here?'' |Marco |Massimo Pirri | |- |''Mr. Mean'' |Huberto |Fred Williamson | |- |rowspan=3|1978 |''Violanta'' |Silver |Daniel Schmid | |- |''Flesh Color'' |Psychiatrist |François Weyergans | |- |''Killer Nun'' |Peter |Giulio Berruti | |- |1980 |''Ombre'' |Renato |Giorgio Cavedon |{{sfn|Curti|2019|p=39}}{{sfn|Curti|2019|p=40}} |- |1982 |''The Eyes, the Mouth'' |Giovanni Pallidissimi / Pippo Pallidissimi |Marco Bellocchio | |- |rowspan=2|1984 |''{{ill|Trauma (1984 film)|fr|3=Trauma (film, 1984)|lt=Trauma}}'' |Lemaitre |{{Interlanguage link|Gabi Kubach|de}} | |- |''Love Is the Beginning of All Terror'' |Traugott |Helke Sander | |- |1985 |''Treasure Island'' |Doctor / Father |Raúl Ruiz | |- |rowspan=3|1986 |''Fraulein'' |André |Michael Haneke |TV film |- |''Hôtel du Paradis'' |Tramp |Jana Boková | |- |''Nanou'' |Italian activist |Conny Templeman | |- |rowspan=2|1987 |''Man on Fire'' |Violente |Élie Chouraqui | |- |''{{Interlanguage link|Rorret|it}}'' |Joseph Rorret |Fulvio Wetzl | |- |1989 |''What Time Is It?'' |Fisherman |Ettore Scola | |- | 1990 |''Flight from Paradise'' |Oleg |Ettore Pasculli | |- |rowspan=3|1991 |''{{Interlanguage link|Fuga da Kayenta|it}}'' |McDonaldson |Fabrizio De Angelis | |- |''Year of the Gun'' |Lou |John Frankenheimer | |- |''Sweet War, Farewell'' |Silvano |Silvano Agosti | |- | 1992 |''Acquitted for Having Committed the Deed'' |Hartman |Alberto Sordi | |- |1993 |''La Naissance de l'amour'' |Paul |Philippe Garrel | |- |1996 |''Irma Vep'' |José Mirano |Olivier Assayas | |- |1998 |''Louise (Take 2)'' |Louise's Father |{{Interlanguage link|Siegfried (director)|fr|3=Siegfried (réalisateur)|lt=Siegfried}} | |- |2001 |''Clément'' |François |Emmanuelle Bercot | |- |2006 |''El Cantor'' |Clovis |Joseph Morder | |- |2007 |''Heartbeat Detector'' |Arie Neumann |Nicolas Klotz | |- |2008 |''The End of the Light Age'' |James June Schneider | | |- |2012 |''La Lapidation de Saint Etienne'' |Étienne |{{Interlanguage link|Pere Vilà Barceló|ca}} | |- |rowspan=2|2013 |''Gare du Nord'' |Ali |Claire Simon | |- |''The Nun'' |Baron de Lasson |Guillaume Nicloux | |}
== References ==
===Footnotes=== {{reflist}}
===Sources=== {{Refbegin}} * {{cite book | last= Curti | first= Roberto | title= Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989 |publisher= McFarland |year= 2019 |isbn= 978-1476672434}} {{Refend}}
==External links== {{commons category}} *{{IMDb name|id=0144589|name=Lou Castel}} *Lou Castel, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20240413030729/http://contramundum.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/18.0%E2%80%94Castel-State_Things%E2%80%94H-8.1.14.pdf My 'State of Things]'," tr. by Rainer J. Hanshe, ''Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics'' (spring 2014) 278–280. *Lou Castel, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20240413030730/http://contramundum.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/19.0%E2%80%94Castel-Shooting_St_Stephen_H-8.1.14.pdf Before / After the filming of The Stoning of St. Stephen]," tr. by Rainer J. Hanshe, ''Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics'' (spring 2014) 281–288.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castel, Lou}} Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia alumni Category:20th-century Swedish male actors Category:21st-century Swedish male actors Category:Swedish male film actors Category:Swedish expatriates in Colombia Category:Swedish expatriates in Italy Category:Swedish expatriates in France Category:Swedish communists Category:Swedish people of Irish descent Category:Male actors from Bogotá