Ellen Horn

Ellen Horn (born Ellen Stoesen, 1 February 1951) is a Norwegian actress, theater director, and politician for the Labour Party.[1]

Ellen Horn
Minister of Culture
In office 17 March 2000 – 19 October 2001
Monarch	Harald V
Prime Minister	Jens Stoltenberg
Preceded by	Åslaug Haga
Succeeded by	Valgerd Svarstad Haugland
Personal details
Born	Ellen Stoesen 1 February 1951 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nationality	Norwegian
Spouse(s)	Jon Christensen
Children	Kjersti Horn Emilie Stoesen Christensen
Occupation	Actor, Minister and Theater director

Career

Horn started as a puppet actor at Oslo Nye Teater (1969–70), and was educated at the Teaterhøyskolen (1972–75), and since the late 1980s has been one of the most central and prominent figures in Norwegian theater. As an actress, she has distinguished herself by her versatility; as director at the Nationaltheatret (1992-2000), she managed to turn a money-losing company with a highly turbulent business culture into a thriving theater both financially and artistically.[1] Horn has been an associate of Norsk Rikskringkasting and Nationaltheatret, and is currently director of Riksteatret.[2]

Horn further developed and consolidated the Ibsen Festival, and led the Nationaltheatret through its 100th anniversary in 1999. On that occasion, she was appointed Commander of the Order of St. Olav. During Stoltenberg's First Cabinet she was Minister of Culture (2000-2001).[1]

After leaving the cabinet, Horn returned to the Nationaltheatret as an actor, and in recent years she has toured with the theater productions Undset and Jeg kunne gråte blod (about Marie and Knut Hamsun). Both as theater director and as minister, she was met by doubts and questions whether she was qualified enough to undertake such large tasks, but she put most of the skepticism to shame with her hard and focused work and her pragmatic attitude, and by growing with the new roles.[1]

Private life

Horn was married (1988) to the Norwegian Jazz drummer Jon Christensen (1943-2020),[1] and she has two children: theater director Kjersti Horn (b. 1977, from her marriage (1973–81) to scenographer Per Kristian Horn, b. 1941), and singer and actress Emilie Stoesen Christensen (b. 1986) from her current marriage.[3]

Honors

• Commander of the Order of St. Olav in 1999[1]

Selected acting roles

• Sigrid Undset in Undset (Trøndelag Teater 2005)[4]
• Margrete in Adjø solidaritet (Farewell Illusions) (Movie, 1985)[5]

References

• Rossiné, Hans. "Ellen Horn". Norsk biografisk leksikon (in Norwegian). Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 28 January 2010.

Notes

1. Rossiné "Ellen Horn Biography - Norsk biografisk leksikon".
2. "Ellen Horn teatersjef for Riksteatret for en ny åremålsperiode - Kulturdepartementet Regjeringen.no". (in Norwegian)
3. "Say and Play - ECM Jon Balke Batagraf ECMrecords.com". Archived from the original on 2013-09-22. ECM Records
4. "Trøndelag Teater Official Website". (in Norwegian)
5. "Adjø solidaritet - Filmweb.no". (in Norwegian)

External links

• Ellen Horn Biography - SNL.no Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian)
• Ellen Horn at Stortinget (in Norwegian)