CANNES, France, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Maj-Britt Nilsson, a Swedish actress who starred in several of Ingmar Bergman's early films, died in a Cannes, France, hospital at 82.
Nilsson was perhaps best known as a jaded prima ballerina recalling her passionate youth in Bergman's "Illicit Interlude," the Washington Post said.
Nilsson -- with dark hair, an enticing pout and expressive eyes -- established herself as an on-screen ingenue while studying at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater. By the late 1940s, she was considered one of the country's most promising young actresses, with performances ranging between light comedy and drama.
Bergman cast her in three movies in the early 1950s, "To Joy," a domestic drama about classical musicians; "Secrets of Women," as one of four sisters-in-law who reveal personal stories; and "Illicit Interlude," also known as "Summer Interlude."
Her last film was 1977's "Bluff Stop," which refers to a card game. She and her second husband, director Per Gerhard, who survives her, settled on the French Riviera in the mid-1980s.
Nilsson died Dec. 19. The cause was not revealed.
