Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist dies after lung cancer battle

Photo grabbed from Reuters video file.

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) — Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, best known for a leading role in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Swedish film series, died in Sweden on Tuesday (June 27) after a year-long battle with lung cancer, his representative said. He was 56.

Nyqvist “passed away quietly surrounded by family” in Stockholm, his spokeswoman said in a statement that called him “one of Sweden’s most respected and accomplished actors.”

Nyqvist rose to prominence as the complex investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist in film adaptations of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s gritty “Millennium” novel series that spawned “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” franchise.

More recently, he played menacing villains in Hollywood action films “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” and “John Wick.”

The actor is survived by his wife and two children.