Örjan Ramberg, a Swedish stage and screen actor who spent more than four decades with Dramaten, Sweden’s Royal Dramatic Theatre, died Aug. 14, 2026, at 78, Aftonbladet reported.
Ramberg began his stage career in Swedish productions of Hair in 1971 and Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972. He studied acting in Malmö and joined Dramaten’s company after graduating in 1977.
At Dramaten, he played Oberon in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. His film breakthrough came in the 1977 adaptation of Ulf Lundell’s novel Jack, directed by Jan Halldoff. He later appeared in the television series Wallander and Solsidan.
Ramberg received Dramaten’s Eugene O’Neill scholarship in 2001, one of Sweden’s highest theater honors. In 2007, he played Edgar opposite Stina Ekblad in Dramaten’s production of August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death. The production ran for more than 80 performances and was later shown digitally at theaters around Sweden.
In 2019, an SVT documentary about singer Josefin Nilsson, Ramberg’s former partner, renewed scrutiny of his conduct during their relationship. He had been convicted in the late 1990s of assaulting Nilsson. Ramberg disputed the documentary’s portrayal and filed a complaint with Sweden’s broadcasting review board. Amid the controversy, Dramaten stopped offering him new roles, ending an association that had begun after his graduation in 1977.
