Sven-Ole Thorsen started his film career with a small role in the Danish film ‘Mind Your Back, Professor’ (1977). While accompanying his body-builder friend Arnold Schwarzenegger on film shoot, Thorsen received the role of hammer-wielding ‘Thorgrim’ in the hit epic sword & sorcery film ‘Conan The Barbarian’ (1982), and further appeared in over 15 of Schwarzenegger films and helped in stunt-work of some of his films.
After appearing in ‘Conan the Destroyer’ (1984) as ‘Togra,’ Thorsen worked in the stunt-department of sword & sorcery film ‘Red Sonja’ (1985) and the action film ‘Raw Deal’ (1986). Because of his imposing physique, he mostly got to play the roles of huge giants or bad men in the action film ‘Lethal Weapon’ (1987) and its sequel, ‘Lethal Weapon 3’ (1992), ‘The Running Man (1987) as ‘bodyguard Sven,’ the sci-fi film ‘Predator’ (1987) as ‘rebel leader,’ the cop-action film ‘Red Head’ (1988) as a mafia, amongst others.
Thorsen also appeared in the comedy films, including ‘Twins’ (1988), ‘Pink Cadillac’ (1989), ‘A Low Down Dirty Shame’ (1994), the buddy comedy film ‘Mallrats’ (1995) and the Christmas family comedy ‘Jingle All the way’ (1996). He worked on the stunts and also played small roles (mostly as stuntman) in many movies, including ‘Ghostbusters II’ (1989), sci-fi action-film ‘Total Recall’ (1990), satirical black-comedy ‘Death Becomes Her’ (1992), Coppola’s gothic-horror ‘Bram Stroker’s Dracula’ (1992), the cyberpunk film ‘Nemesis’ (1992), the action film ‘Eraser’ (1996) and many more.
Thorsen did only stunts for many movies, including the action films ‘Breakdown’ (1997) ‘Collateral’ (2004), ‘Back in Business’ (1997), the superhero film ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997), the sci-fi action film ‘Soldier’ (1998), the buddy-comedy ‘Ready to Rumble’ (2000), and others.
Thorsen had major starring roles in the sci-fi film ‘Abraxas Guardian of the Universe’ (1991) as the intimidating alien rogue ‘Secundus,’ ‘The Viking Saga’ (1995) as brave ‘Gunnar,’ the Canadian action film ‘No Exit’ (1995) as main antihero ‘Darcona.’ He co-starred as ‘Boris’ in the martial-arts action film ‘Best of the Best 4: Without Warning’ (1998). In the epic historical drama film ‘Gladiator’ (2000), he played ‘Tigris of Gaul,’ winning ‘Taurus World Stunt Award.’
Thorsen played ‘Lt. Michael ‘Tank’ Ellis’ on the TV series ‘Captain Power: and the Soldiers of the Future’ (1987). He also appeared on various TV series, including ‘The Flash,’ ‘Baywatch,’ ‘The Guardian,’ and also some Danish TV series.