Carola Häggkvist has performed with Sven-Bertil Taube several times over the years and calls him elegance personified.
— He was so enormously natural in his way of speaking, of moving. The way he delivered text was absolutely brilliant, she tells TT.
As a youngster, her father used to play Taube on guitar at home, and even before the breakthrough with “Främling”, Carola herself interpreted “Brevet från Lillan” on television, in 1980. She says that it feels strange that he has passed away.
“For me, he is an enormous treasure that has gone out of time. But he will always remain through the songs.
Guitarist Daniel Gilbert, who among other things has been on stage with Taube at Håkan Hellström’s Ullevi concert in 2016, receives the news with sadness.
— It was very sad to hear. I have met him a few times and played. He was a nice person and it came through all the time. When we played together he could barely see so he had his wife recite the text we were going to play which was very nice, says Gilbert.
Sven-Bertil Taube was a substitute for Håkan Hellström at Ullevi in 2016. Archive image.
Ebbot Lundberg, rock singer who is best known for his years in The Soundtrack of our Lives, is one of the many who have visited Sven-Bertil Taube during his concerts at Gröna Lund.
“He advocated style, beauty, love and, above all, a professionalism that few artists in the world possess. A true role model. Of course, he leaves a big void,” he writes to TT.
“Be too pretty”
As an actor, Sven-Bertil Taube was praised for both film and stage roles in recent years. But at the beginning of his career he was underestimated and not taken seriously, says film journalist Gunnar Rehlin.
— He was a bit mistreated, because he had to make sex comedies a lot. “The Lion and the Maiden” and what they were called. He was a handsome and nice man. I think it may have been for him as it often is for women – he was too handsome, says Rehlin.
At the same time, he had some success as an action hero abroad, with, among others, the police thriller “Marionette in chains” (1971) and the war film “The Eagle has landed” (1976).
— But proving how good he was was among the last things he did with “En enkel til Antibes” – an incredibly nice and moving story where he really totally dominated the film, says Gunnar Rehlin.
“Sven-Bertil managed to keep his father’s repertoire alive for a very long time,” says music journalist Stefan Wermelin. “Incredibly nice”
He himself has met Sven-Bertil Taube. During the filming of Bille August’s “Jerusalem”, where Gunnar Rehlin was involved in making the background film, he and Sven-Bertil Taube had bungalows next to each other.
— He was incredibly nice to spend time with. He was a gentleman and it showed in the roles he did. They went hand in hand with the person he was.
Music journalist Stefan Wermelin calls Sven-Bertil Taube a piece of Swedish cultural history.
— Sven-Bertil managed to keep his father’s repertoire alive for a very long time. He was a big part of Swedish cultural history and his father was very proud of him, he says and continues:
— He was a confident, versatile performer. He looked good and he was also a good actor who worked very diligently.