Peter Stormare

Peter Stormare, born Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm on August 27, 1953, in Kumla, Sweden, is a Swedish-American actor whose career spans stage, film, television, and music. His family relocated to Arbrå, where he grew up before pursuing formal training at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. He altered his surname after discovering a senior student at the acting academy shared it; he briefly considered the name Retep Mrots, a reversal of "Peter Storm," before settling on Stormare, a Swedish word meaning "stormer."

Among his earliest major stage achievements was performing the title role in Ingmar Bergman's production of Hamlet. Stormare went on to appear on Broadway in 2009 in the play Hedda Gabler. His stage work reflects the classical foundation he built during his training in Stockholm.

His film career gained significant international attention with the role of Gaear Grimsrud in the Coen Brothers' Fargo in 1996. Subsequent film appearances include The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Playing God in 1997, The Big Lebowski and Armageddon in 1998, 8mm in 1999, Dancer in the Dark in 2000, Windtalkers and Minority Report in 2002, Bad Boys II in 2003, Constantine in 2005, 22 Jump Street in 2014, and John Wick: Chapter 2 in 2017. A recurring feature of his film work has been portraying characters of varying nationalities, including Americans, Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, and Russians across different productions. In 2007, he appeared in Premonition as Dr. Roth and starred in the Swedish-Norwegian film Svartvattnet. He appeared alongside Kevin Spacey and Daniel Wu in the 2011 Chinese film Inseparable, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival that year. He starred in the Eli Roth–produced film Clown in 2014.

On television, Stormare is widely recognized for portraying John Abruzzi in Prison Break from 2005 to 2007. He declined an offer to join the cast of the ABC series Lost for a one-year role. In April 2007, he appeared in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. His television credits also include episodes of Longmire, Arrow, and The Blacklist in 2014. In 2016, he played Rutger Burlin in the Swedish series Midnattssol and co-created the web series Swedish Dicks, in which he starred as Ingmar; the series was renewed for a second season in October 2016. In 2017, he played Czernobog in the Starz series American Gods and voiced the vampire Godbrand in the Netflix animated series Castlevania. In February 2006, he starred as Wolfgang in Volkswagen's VDub television commercial series. On November 7, 2025, he appeared on the ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital.

Stormare has an extensive presence in video games. He voiced Mattias Nilsson in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and its sequel Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Isair in Icewind Dale 2, and Johann Strauss in Quake 4. He voiced a character in Destiny in 2014 and reprised work in Destiny 2 in 2017. In 2015, he provided both voice and motion capture for Dr. Alan J. Hill in Until Dawn, a role he reprised in the film adaptation released in April 2025.

Music has been another dimension of Stormare's career. After Bono of U2 heard his music and encouraged him to record, Stormare released his debut album, Dallerpölsa och småfåglar, in 2002. He performs with a band called Blonde from Fargo and operates a record label called StormVox. He appeared in the music video for "Uprising" by the Swedish power metal band Sabaton, in the videos "Steh Auf" and "Frau & Mann" by the metal project Lindemann, and in the 2019 music video for "Graven" by the American death metal band Possessed.

In his personal life, Stormare married actress Karen Sillas in 1989; they divorced in 2006. He married Toshimi Murakami, originally from Japan, in 2008, and their daughter was born in 2009. The family resides in Los Angeles. Stormare holds dual citizenship in Sweden and the United States, having naturalized as an American citizen during the late 1990s, and divides his time between the two countries. He is the godfather of actor Gustaf Skarsgård. Stormare is a Christian who has spoken about his faith and describes a strong spiritual influence inherited from his mother, whom he has characterized as a medium. During his youth in Arbrå, he participated in Baptist meetings.