‘The Great Waldo Pepper” actor Bo Brundin dead at 85

Bo Brundin, a Swedish-born actor best known for playing a demoralized German war pilot opposite Robert Redford in “The Great Waldo Pepper,” died Sept. 4. He was 85.

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Brundin died in his hometown of Uppsala, Sweden, a spokesperson for Paar Productions told The Hollywood Reporter. The company worked with the actor on the 2011 short film, “Starlight,” the entertainment news website reported.

The actor also appeared in one episode of the 1976 miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” playing Harold Jordache, an uncle of the brothers portrayed by Nick Nolte and Peter Strauss, according to IMDb.com.

Brundin was typecast as a German or Russian in many of his roles. He appeared in several films, including “Raise the Titanic” in 1980, “Meteor” (1979), “Shoot the Sun Down” (1978) and the X-rated “Around the World With Fanny Hill” (1974), according to Variety.

In 1975, Brundin starred in “The Great Waldo Pepper.” Brundin played Ernst Kessler, a former German pilot ace doing stunt work. He and Redford’s character get serious during a staged dogfight in the film’s climactic scene, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“It was a little scary because there was a real crash just about an hour before I went up for the first time,” Brundin said in a 2015 interview with Greenville & Hockessin Life magazine. “I saw the crash, and [stuntman] Frank Tallman had his forehead split. It took three weeks in the hospital.

“We used the Tiger Moth plane, which was a great plane except it’s a little clumsy. It’s like a little elephant in the air.”

Brundin was born on April 25, 1937, and pursued an acting career after being cast in Ingmar Bergman’s stage production of “The Seventh Seal.” Brundin returned to Sweden in 2013 and spent his later years mentoring young actors, according to Variety.

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