Lars Ranthe

Lars Ranthe (born 26 August 1969) is a Danish actor renowned for his versatile performances in film and television, spanning child roles in the early 1980s to critically acclaimed supporting parts in international hits like Another Round (2020) and The Hunt (2012).^[1][2] Ranthe began his career as a child actor, appearing in films such as Rubber Tarzan (1981) and Crash (1984), before graduating from Odense Theatre in 1998 and transitioning to adult roles in the 2000s.^[1] His breakthrough came with the biographical drama Dirch (2011), in which he portrayed comedian Kjeld Petersen, earning him both the Bodil Award and the Robert Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[1][3] Subsequent notable film roles include Bruun in Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt (2012), Peter in Another Round (2020)—for which he shared the Actor’s Trophy at the San Sebastián International Film Festival—and appearances in Adam's Apples (2005), The Shooter (2013), and The Commune (2016).^[1][2] On television, he has gained popularity for his long-running role as merchant Georg Madsen in the period drama Seaside Hotel (2013–present) and as psychiatrist Daniel in the miniseries Ride Upon the Storm (2017).^[1][2] Throughout his career, Ranthe has received multiple accolades, including a 2025 Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actor in Matters of the Heart (2024), a 2021 Bodil nomination for Another Round, and Danish Film Award (Robert) nominations for Pros and Cons (2018) and Warrior (2018).^[1][3] He is also a music artist and has been married to actress Christine Albeck Børge since 1998.^[4]

Early life

Birth and childhood

Lars Kristian Ranthe was born on 26 August 1969 in Vesterbro, Copenhagen, Denmark.^[5] He was the son of Jytte Ranthe, a porcelain painter, and Per Ranthe, a typographer and offset printer.^[5] Ranthe grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Vesterbro and later Amager in Copenhagen.^[6] From a young age, he trained as an apparatus gymnast with the gymnastics club Hermes, where he excelled as the team's top performer.^[6] His physical prowess extended to breakdancing, as he won the Danish championship multiple times between 1982 and 1986 as a member of the group Floormasters.^[6] These early accomplishments in gymnastics and acrobatics honed Ranthe's athletic abilities, which later proved instrumental in his entry into performance arts.^[6]

Education

Ranthe pursued formal training in acting at the Odense Theatre's Drama School, where he honed his skills in stage performance and dramatic arts.^[1] He graduated from the program in 1998, marking the completion of his structured education in theater.^[7] The curriculum at the Odense Theatre's Drama School, now integrated into the Danish National Academy of Performing Arts (DDSKS) Odense campus, emphasized practical stagecraft and performance techniques. Key components included dramatic training through character development, improvisation, and genre-specific exercises; body mastery via dance, physical drama, stage combat, and awareness training to enhance expressive movement; and voice work encompassing speech, vocal training, singing, and musical elements to support ensemble dynamics.^[8] These elements prepared students for collaborative theater production, culminating in hands-on projects, internships, and a final graduation performance that provided essential exposure to live stage work.^[8]

Career

Debut and breakthrough

Lars Ranthe made his professional film debut in 2000 in the Danish drama The Bench (Bænken), directed by Per Fly.^[1] In the film, he played the supporting role of Kaptajnen, a companion to the protagonist Kaj, an alcoholic welfare recipient who frequents a public bench with his friends while grappling with personal redemption.^[9] Adapted from a true story, the film addresses themes of social exclusion, honor, and compassion among society's margins and received acclaim, winning the Bodil Award for Best Danish Film and the Robert Award for Best Danish Film in 2001.^[10] Following his graduation from Odense Theatre's Drama School in 1998, Ranthe took on several supporting roles in the early 2000s that increased his visibility in Danish cinema.^[1] In 2002's Okay, a dramedy directed by Jesper W. Nielsen about a family confronting terminal illness and everyday absurdities, he portrayed a welfare client.^[11] The year 2003 brought roles in two ensemble films: as Carsten in Natasha Arthy's comedy Old, New, Borrowed and Blue, which follows interconnected stories of pre-wedding turmoil among diverse friends, and as Claus in Scratch (Bagland), a drama exploring urban alienation and youth conflicts.^[12] Ranthe's early prominence in Danish cinema grew with the black comedy The Green Butchers (De grønne slagtere), directed by Anders Thomas Jensen.^[13] He appeared as the food inspector, a bureaucratic figure whose inspections heighten the film's tension in its tale of two butchers—played by Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas—who unwittingly serve human meat after a workplace accident.^[14] The film blended morbid humor with character-driven satire, earning praise for its originality and achieving commercial success with 261,649 admissions in Denmark.^[15]

Major film roles

Ranthe continued building his profile with a supporting role as Esben, a member of the quirky church congregation, in Anders Thomas Jensen's dark comedy Adam's Apples (2005), where he contributed to the ensemble dynamic amid themes of redemption and absurdity in a rural Danish setting.^[16] This performance built on his earlier work in The Green Butchers (2003), another Jensen-directed black comedy. His portrayal of Kjeld Petersen, the comedy partner to Dirch Passer, in the biographical drama Dirch (2011) marked a significant milestone in his career.^[17] Directed by Martin Zandvliet, the film explores the life and struggles of Danish comedian Dirch Passer, with Ranthe's role highlighting the duo's professional and personal dynamics. In Thomas Vinterberg's social drama The Hunt (2012), Ranthe portrayed Bruun, the loyal friend and godfather to the protagonist's son, offering steadfast support amid escalating accusations of child abuse that fracture a tight-knit community.^[18] His role underscored the film's exploration of hysteria, isolation, and the fragility of trust in a small-town environment.^[19] Ranthe played Jesper Bang, a key figure in the unfolding crisis, in the political thriller The Shooter (2013), directed by Annette K. Olesen.^[20] The film depicts a marksman taking a foreign minister hostage to expose environmental cover-ups related to oil drilling. Ranthe reunited with Vinterberg for The Commune (2016), playing Ole, a charismatic yet stubborn university colleague who joins the 1970s experimental household, heightening tensions through his unfiltered personality and involvement in the group's ideological clashes.^[21] Set against the backdrop of Denmark's countercultural commune movement, the film delves into family conflicts arising from shared living, infidelity, and generational divides.^[22] Ranthe's portrayal of Peter, a history teacher grappling with marital strain, in Vinterberg's Another Round (2020) highlighted the perils and fleeting joys of an alcohol-fueled experiment among four colleagues seeking to enhance their lives through constant inebriation.^[23] The narrative, inspired by a pseudoscientific theory on sobriety's inhibitions, earned international acclaim, including the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.^[24] In recent years, Ranthe has continued to take on diverse supporting roles in Danish productions. He appeared as Kim, a family acquaintance entangled in a web of infidelity and revenge, in the Netflix thriller Loving Adults (2022), directed by Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg, which examines the destructive fallout of an affair in an ostensibly perfect marriage following their son's recovery from illness.^[25][26] In the comedy sequel Maybe Baby 2 (2024), also by Topsøe-Rothenborg and released on Netflix, Ranthe played Andreas, one of two fathers navigating co-parenting chaos after discovering their children from a fertility clinic mix-up are biologically theirs, leading to an unconventional shared household.^[27][28] Ranthe starred as Peter, a schoolteacher confronting moral dilemmas, in Christina Rosendahl's family drama Matters of the Heart (2024), where his character's past intersects with his son's life-saving heart transplant from a former student, unraveling long-buried family secrets.^[29] In Anders Thomas Jensen's black comedy The Last Viking (2025), he depicted the brothers' abusive Father in flashbacks, providing backstory to the protagonists' criminal pursuits and sibling bond amid a heist gone wrong.^[30] Finally, in Christoffer Boe's period crime drama Special Unit - The First Murder (2025), set in 1927 Denmark, Ranthe portrayed Skov Nielsen, a local figure amid the inaugural case of the National Mobile Investigative Unit probing a suspicious death and uncovering corruption in Esbjerg.^[31]

Television work

Ranthe's earliest television credit came in the 1984 Danish children's science fiction series Crash: The Menace from the Black Hole, where he portrayed the young protagonist Birger, a boy who embarks on an interstellar adventure after discovering a mysterious comic book.^[32] This 13-episode production, directed by Carsten Overskov, marked his debut at age 15 and introduced him to serialized storytelling in a fantastical setting.^[33] In 2007, Ranthe appeared in the television film Mors Dreng (Mother Dearest), playing the role of Magnus' father in a poignant drama centered on a boy named Rune navigating life with his widowed mother after his father's death.^[34] Directed by Poul Erik Madsen and produced by Zentropa, the story explores themes of loss, responsibility, and emotional bonds within a family, with Ranthe's character appearing in key scenes that underscore the lingering impact of paternal absence.^[35] Ranthe gained prominence in Danish television through his long-running portrayal of Grosserer Georg Madsen in the period drama Seaside Hotel (Badehotellet), which premiered in 2013 and has aired over 10 seasons as of 2025.^[36] Set in a seaside hotel on the North Sea coast spanning the 1920s to the 1970s, the series follows the lives of guests and staff amid historical events; Ranthe's Madsen is a wealthy merchant and regular patron whose arc evolves from a boisterous businessman to a figure grappling with personal and societal changes, including post-World War II recovery and family dynamics.^[37] His performance, spanning more than 70 episodes, highlights his ability to sustain character depth across decades of narrative progression. Ranthe portrayed psychiatrist Daniel in the Danish miniseries Ride Upon the Storm (Herrens veje, 2017–2018), a family drama exploring faith, ambition, and personal crises within a household of clergy.^[1] The 10-episode series delves into the contrasting paths of two brothers under their father's influence. In the 2021 Netflix miniseries The Chestnut Man, Ranthe played Nylander, the stern supervisor to detective Naia Thulin in a gripping crime thriller based on Søren Sveistrup's novel.^[38] The six-episode series investigates brutal murders linked to chestnut figurines and a politician's missing daughter, with Nylander providing authoritative oversight that drives the investigative tension and procedural elements.^[39] Ranthe's portrayal emphasizes bureaucratic pressure and interpersonal conflicts within the police unit, contributing to the show's atmospheric exploration of grief and justice. Ranthe has also taken on notable guest and supporting roles in other series, including Dan Brolund in four episodes of the fourth season of The Bridge (Broen, 2018), a cross-border crime drama where his character aids in unraveling immigration-related mysteries. More recently, in 2024, he appeared as Jan in the comedy-drama Hunting Season 2 (Jagtsæson 2), navigating personal crises amid group dynamics, and as Hr. Moth in the family-oriented The Children of Silver Street (Børnene fra Sølvgade), a story of siblings fending for themselves after their mother's disappearance.^[40][41] These roles demonstrate his versatility in blending humor, drama, and ensemble narratives across contemporary Danish television.^[42]

Awards and nominations

Danish film awards

Lars Ranthe has garnered significant recognition from Denmark's premier film awards, the Bodil and Robert prizes, for his supporting roles in notable Danish productions. In 2012, Ranthe won the Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Kjeld Petersen in A Funny Man (Dirch), a biopic about comedian Dirch Passer.^[43] He also received the Robert Award for Best Supporting Actor that year for the same performance.^[44] Ranthe earned further acclaim with a nomination for the Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for his role as Bruun in The Hunt, directed by Thomas Vinterberg.^[45] Subsequent nominations include the 2017 Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actor for Ole in The Commune, another Vinterberg film.^[3] In 2021, he was nominated again in the same category for his role in Another Round.^[3] In 2025, Ranthe secured his second Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Peter in Matters of the Heart.^[3] Additionally, he won the 2012 Ole Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Funny Man.^[46] He received Robert Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Drama for Pros and Cons (2019) and Best Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series for Warrior (2019).^[47] In 2025, he won the Robert Award for Best Actor for Matters of the Heart.^[48]

International honors

Ranthe's domestic accolades laid the groundwork for his international acclaim, particularly through roles in critically praised Danish films that garnered global attention.^[49] In 2020, Ranthe shared the Silver Shell for Best Actor at the San Sebastián International Film Festival with co-stars Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, and Magnus Millang for their ensemble performances in Another Round.^[50] This prestigious award highlighted his portrayal of a history teacher grappling with midlife stagnation, contributing to the film's success at the 68th edition of the festival.^[51] Across international film circuits, Ranthe has earned 8 wins and 10 nominations, including festival-specific nods for his supporting roles in films such as The Hunt (2012) and The Commune (2016).^[3] These recognitions underscore his versatility in ensemble casts that explore complex social dynamics. Ranthe's contributions extended to broader international honors through Another Round, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film in 2021, affirming the film's—and his performance's—global impact.

Personal life

Marriage

Lars Ranthe married actress Christine Albeck Børge in 1998.^[52] Both professionals in the Danish film and theater industry, they have collaborated on screen in the 2016 drama Love and Other Catastrophes, directed by Sofie Stougaard, where they shared scenes amid a story exploring marital infidelity and personal crises.^[53] Their union has endured for over 27 years as of 2025, maintaining stability through the challenges of demanding acting schedules that often involve extensive travel and irregular hours. The marriage has also seen family expansion through children.^[52]

Family

Lars Ranthe and his wife, actress Christine Albeck Børge, form the foundation of his family, with whom he has two daughters: Rigmor, born on July 2, 2003, and Betty Marie, born in 2008.^[54][55][56] The family resides in Valby, a quiet district in Copenhagen, Denmark, where they lead a grounded lifestyle centered on home and nature; they also own a summer house in Nordsjælland featuring a large garden that supports their outdoor-oriented routine. Ranthe has emphasized his commitment to family involvement, noting the adjustment to a quieter home after Rigmor's move to film school in Ebeltoft at age 20, stating, "Der er jo stille, når ens børn pludselig ikke er der mere på samme måde."^[55] In interviews, Ranthe describes himself as an actively engaged parent who prioritizes balancing his demanding acting schedule with family life, enjoying shared activities like music, golf, fishing, and gardening to foster closeness. The family maintains strict privacy around the daughters' personal lives, though Rigmor has followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress, appearing in projects such as Klovn and En helt almindelig familie.^[55][57]