Christina Lindberg


Britt Christina Marinette Lindberg is a Swedish journalist known internationally for her work as an erotic actress and glamour model in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Biography

Lindberg grew up in a working-class home in Annedal, Gothenburg, together with her sister and three brothers. She studied Latin at school, and planned to continue her studies after graduation in archaeology.

Modeling career

Around 1968, in her final year of schooling, Lindberg began posing nude for men's magazines, such as FIB aktuellt and Lektyr, after having garnered some attention posing in swimsuits for Swedish newspapers. She later appeared in prominent men's magazines, such as Penthouse, Playboy, Lui and Mayfair. Lindberg was "Penthouse Pet" for the June 1970 issue of Penthouse.

Film career

Lindberg has appeared or starred in 26 feature films, most of which are erotica, fictional sexploitation or softcore productions. Her first appearance in an American film, Maid in Sweden was filmed with a predominantly Swedish cast in her home country. Her first role in a Swedish film was in Jan Halldoff's comedy Rötmånad. The film was seen by over 250,000 Swedes, a record for the time, and went on to become a commercial success. Her third film, Exponerad, was released with a lot of hype at the Cannes Film Festival that year, and turned her into an international celebrity. As part of the marketing campaign for Exponerad, Lindberg embarked on a promotional trip across Japan, which later resulted in an invitation to appear in Japanese films. There, she played a major supporting role in Norifumi Suzuki's Pink film classic Sex & Fury.
A string of sexploitation films followed, many of which were filmed in Germany or Japan. In 1973, she starred as Madeleine in Bo A. Vibenius's controversial film Thriller – en grym film, and was the basis for Daryl Hannah's character Elle Driver in Tarantino's Kill Bill series of films.
Lindberg did not like that nude pictures were getting more and more explicit and, during the filming of Gerard Damiano's Flossie, in West Germany, she left the set and returned home to Sweden. Damiano persuaded Lindberg to leave because he knew that it was going to be a hardcore film. For several years, the German producer tried to bring her back, in an attempt to complete the film. According to Videooze, about 1,000 meters of film had been shot by Damiano. Production ceased and never resumed.
After a long absence from acting, Lindberg appeared in the 2016 thriller Lindangens Park, the 2018 horror movie Svart Cirkel and in the 2020 sci-fi feature Pandemonic.

Post film career

In her introduction to Daniel Ekeroth's book Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema, Christina Lindberg explains that after leaving exploitation films behind, she has been busy with numerous other projects. In 1972 she met future fiancé Bo Sehlberg and later started to work for his aviation magazine Flygrevyn. When Sehlberg died in 2004, Lindberg took over ownership and the position as editor-in-chief of the magazine—which is the largest aviation magazine in Scandinavia. She has also produced an instructional video on how to pick and prepare mushrooms, Christinas Svampskola, and is very passionate about preserving the Swedish wolf. She made an attempt to enter the theater school Scenskolan in 1975 after having taken private lessons from Öllegård Wellton, but failed after having passed two out of three tests. She continued posing and writing for men's magazines while studying journalism at Poppius, and she eventually established herself as a journalist.

Selected filmography

Note: The films have been listed in order of production, based on Lindberg's diary.
YearMovieRoleNotes
1970 Rötmånad Anna Bella GustafssonMajor supporting role
1971 YusraIt's unclear whether Lindberg actually appears in this film
1971 Maid in Sweden IngaStarring role ; filmed entirely in English
1971 SmokeAnnieMinor supporting role. Annie was based on the US comic strip character Little Orphan Annie.
1971 Exponerad Lena SvenssonStarring role
1972 Swedish Wildcats HelgaBrief appearances
1972 Young PlaythingsGunillaStarring role
1972 Mädchen, die nach München kommen AnjaMinor supporting role
1972 Schulmädchen-Report 4. Teil – Was Eltern oft verzweifeln lässt Barbara HeinbachMinor supporting role. The American version is 20 mins. shorter, and many of Lindberg's scenes have been cut
1973 Liebe in drei Dimensionen IngeMinor supporting role
1973 Was Schulmädchen verschweigen Minor supporting role
1973 Meatball ModelBrief appearances
1973 Furyô anego den: Inoshika Ochô ChristinaMajor supporting role
1973 Poruno no joô: Nippon sex ryokô Ingrid JacobsenMajor supporting role
1973 Wide Open EvaMinor supporting role
1973 Anita – ur en tonårsflickas dagbok AnitaStarring role. There are several versions of the film, including a US version with hardcore inserts which were shot later. The hardcore version has not been released on DVD.
1974 Thriller – en grym film Madeleine/Frigga/One EyeStarring role
1977 91:an och Generalernas FnattBloodsample NurseBrief appearances
1979 There Is a Sunrise Every MorningCavegirlEco-drama/documentary
1980 Attentatet Brief appearances
1980 Sverige åt svenskarna French MistressBrief appearances
1982One-Week Bachelors Stripper Brief appearances
1993 Christinas Svampskola20 min. instructional video about mushrooms
2000 Sex, lögner & videovåld Frigga/Madeleine/One Eye A non-commercial video parody of a variety of well known movies. Made by Swedish film fans working themselves in movie and entertainment business, shot in 1990–1993