Alexander Skarsgård's Real Name: Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård

Quick answer: Alexander Skarsgård's full name is Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård. He was born on August 25, 1976, in Stockholm, Sweden, and works under Alexander Skarsgård—the civil form of his birth name.

Real name and early life

Library of Congress name authority and Biography.com identify Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård, born August 25, 1976, in Stockholm (LOC; Biography.com). Skarsgård is the family surname; Johan and Hjalmar are middle names. He is the eldest son of actor Stellan Skarsgård and physician My Skarsgård. Siblings who also act include Gustaf, Bill, and Valter. He began screen work as a child—including an early role around age seven—then stepped away after the Swedish hit The Dog That Smiled (1989) brought unwanted teenage fame. At 19 he completed national service in a Swedish marine antiterror unit, later studied briefly in England, and trained in theater at Marymount Manhattan College in New York before returning to Swedish film and television in the late 1990s.

Career highlights

His U.S. film debut was a small part in Zoolander (2001). He wrote and directed the short To Kill a Child (2003), then earned strong notices as Brad “Iceman” Colbert in HBO’s Generation Kill (2008). International breakthrough came as Viking vampire Eric Northman on HBO’s True Blood (2008–2014), a role that cemented him with U.S. audiences after years of Swedish leads. Film work includes Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011) opposite his father, Straw Dogs (2011), Battleship (2012), The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015), the title role in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Passing (2021), Robert Eggers’s The Northman (2022), and a late-run arc on HBO’s Succession. For abusive husband Perry Wright in HBO’s Big Little Lies (2017), he won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe. Across Swedish and Hollywood billing, the professional name stayed Alexander Skarsgård; the documented full name is Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård.

Name notes for searchers

English outlets often drop the diacritic (Skarsgard). Prefer LOC and Biography.com over unsourced stubs. Sibling actors in the same family can confuse search results; match the August 1976 Stockholm birth when disambiguating. Wikipedia is useful only as a pointer after primary citations.