Erik Balling

Erik Balling was one of the most beloved Danish filmmaker in the 20th century Balling was a director a producer and a writer Erik Balling was mostly famous for creating such TV epics as Matador and Huset På Christianshavn and the filmseries of Olsen banden Erik Balling was born the 19th of November 1925 in the Danish city of Nyborg as a son of a priest In 1946 Balling was hired as an assistant at Nordisk Film Kompagni the worlds oldest film production company His talent was soon recognised and Balling soon had the opportunity to work as a director His debut as a director came in 1952 with the film Vi arme syndere Balling soon gained a reputation of having good technical skills and after that film his talent was widely recognised In 1957 he became head of Nordisk Film the youngest one ever Balling was mostly famous for his comedies In his early days he directed Poeten og Lillemor 1959 and Sommer i Tyrol 1964 which were very popular at the time In the middle of the 1960s Balling tried to chance his style when it came to comedies At this time the popular James Bond films circled the globe Ballings next film was inspired by those films teaming up with Henning Bahs to make the Jamed Bond spoof Slå Først Frede 1965 which became very popular in Denmark so popular it spawned a sequel Slap af Frede 1966 This cowork with Henning Bahs was so fruitful that they made many more movies together This cowork eventually led to filmseries of Olsen banden which started with Olsenbanden 1968 and eventually they made a total of 14 Olsen banden film plus a TV series and a movie version where the characters in Olsen banden are children Olsen banden was about a small band of small time criminals trying to become millionaires Olsen banden were not only very popular in Denmark but also in EastGermany Poland Sweden and Norway especially in Norway and Sweden who eventually made their own national versions of Olsen banden namely the Norwegian Olsen banden and the Swedish Jönssonligan Henning Bahs and Erik Balling also helped the Norwegians and the Swedes to write those In that late 60s and early 70s Balling made the popular Danish TV series Huset På Christianshavn which also became the basis for a movie Ballade på Christianshavn 1971 In 1970 Balling produced the very popular Danish TV epic Matador More than fifty percent of Denmarks population watched Matador in those days Matador was about life in a smaller city in Denmark in the 30s and 40s Balling was always known for his warm style when he portrayed humans Throughout his life he received many prizes He was 80 years old when he died the 19th of November 2005