In 1942, Gabriel Axel was admitted to the acting school at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.
10 Facts About Gabriel Axel
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Gabriel Axel returned to Denmark in 1950, and broke through as a stage director in the early 1950s.
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Gabriel Axel's productions included La tete des autres by Marcel Ayme, Le Cid by Pierre Corneille, and Pour Lucrece by Jean Giraudoux.
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Gabriel Axel started directing for television in 1951, and, from 1951 to 1968, did some 48 television dramas.
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Gabriel Axel went on to direct a string of lighter comedies and farces before making the epic Nordic saga The Red Mantle in 1967, which was selected for Cannes Film Festival competition and won a Technical Prize at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.
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In 1987, Gabriel Axel returned to Denmark to direct what had been his dream project for over 15 years, and is considered his masterpiece, an adaptation of Karen Blixen's Babette's Feast.
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Alongside his directing career, Gabriel Axel acted in a dozen Danish films, mostly in colourful supporting roles in popular comedies in the 1950s and 60s.
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Gabriel Axel played the lead as the elegant charlatan Marcel de Sade in The Reluctant Sadist.
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In 2003, Gabriel Axel received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.
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Gabriel Axel died in his sleep on 9 February 2014 at the age of 95.