Martin Beck - Character

Character

Throughout the novels, he goes from being an unhappily married man and father to two young teenagers, to a divorced man in an unmarried relationship. Beck is prone to colds and often is suffering from ailments and physical discomforts. Beck also gets several promotions, seemingly much to the chagrin of everyone involved, including himself.

In the novels he is a tall man who smokes. In The Abominable Man he is shot and severely wounded.

All ten novels have been adapted to film, although some appeared with different titles and four have been filmed outside Sweden. The first actor to play Martin Beck was Keve Hjelm in 1967. Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt portrayed Beck in 1976. In 1993 and 1994, Gösta Ekman played the character in six films. To the American audiences, the most notable actor to play Martin Beck is Walter Matthau from the 1973 film called The Laughing Policeman, though his character was called "Jake Martin". Martin Beck has also been played by Jan Decleir, Derek Jacobi and Romualds Ancāns. Two of the novels has been adapted for films twice, Roseanna and Murder at the Savoy. In the later films that is only based on the characters, Martin Beck is played by Peter Haber.