Egill Ólafsson

Egill Ólafsson (born 9 February 1953) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, and actor. He is married to the actress Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir.

Egill Ólafsson studied playing guitar and piano when he was young and was part of a boys' brass band under the direction of Karl Otto Runólfsson.

While he was a student at Hamrahlid College from 1970 until 1974, Egill Ólafsson sang in the choir of the school Kór MH.

1970 he started to study at the Tónlistarskólinn (music school in Reykjavík). The disciplines he was studying were singing and composing. In 1976 Egill Ólafsson graduated at Tónlistarskólinn In Reykjavík.

Among his compositions are music for choirs, brass band music and music for strings and trumpets. He has composed around 30 theatrical works. He composed for musicals Grettir, Eva Luna and Come Dance With Me, the latter having a run on off-Broadway in 1996. His works have been played by various ensembles like Spilverk þjóðanna, Stuðmenn, Hinn íslenski Þursaflokkur, Tríó Björns Thoroddsen, Blái hatturinn, Les Grand Tango and The Icelandic Sound Company. And just recently (2015–16) he's been working with the German group Strom & Wasser as a co-writer and musician. The product has been released by Traumton in Berlin, called "Reykjavik" (Double Album).

He has landed many stage roles in Icelandic Theatre and film roles in Icelandic, German and Scandinavian films.

Under the mononym Egill he released a number of albums mainly with Stuðmenn / Spilverk þjóðanna labels. He also co-wrote materials with Finnish artist Matti Kallio, a resident of Iceland.

Egill Olafsson also is a musical-performer. Several times he was performing leading characters in the Icelandic productions of different musicals at the Icelandic National Theatre, for instance Evita (Perón), Carmen negra (Escamillo), Three Penny Opera (Peachum), Kiss me Kate (Fred Graham) and also in many of the plays he has written as composer.

He appeared as Javert in Vesalingarnir, the Icelandic adaptation of Les Misérables at the National Theatre, after having played the role of Jean Valjean in the same musical a quarter of a century earlier. At Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Original West End production of the musical Les Misérables Egill Ólafsson was performing as one of the Seventeen Valjeans at the second encore. It was filmed in October 1995 at the Royal Albert Hall and released on DVD, VHS and LaserDisc distributed by Sony Pictures (US/CAN) and BBC Video (UK).

He is married to the actress and former artistic director at the National Theatre in Iceland (2005-2015) Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir. Their children are Ólafur Egilsson, actor, director and writer and Gunnlaugur Egilsson, ballet dancer and Ellen Erla Egilsdóttir.

Before the Icelandic loan guarantees referendum, 2010 Egill Ólafsson was one of the Icelandic celebrities, who spoke out to vote "no".

At the elections for the Icelandic parliament Althing in April 2013, Egill Ólafsson was a candidate of Lýðræðisvaktin (Iceland Democratic Party).

In October 2013 his work was honored by FTT (Society Of Songwriters In Iceland).

On 17 June 2015 his work was honored by the President of Iceland. Egill Ólafsson was awarded with the Falcon Order Medal.

In October 2022, it was revealed that Egill had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

(Music composed for theatre)