Arve Opsahl was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 movie and stage actor, singer and stand-up comedian.

Opsahl began his career as a comedian in 1942, and played numerous roles both on stage and in more than forty movies. He was then chosen to be the head of Olsenbanden, Egon Olsen

Egon Olsen

Egon Olsen is a fictional character in the Danish film series The Olsen Gang and the Norwegian film series Olsenbanden. He is portrayed by Ove Sprogøe in the Danish movies and by Arve Opsahl in the Norwegian versions...

. He played Egon Olsen in the first movie in 1969, and in all other 13 movies, until the last one in 1999. He is also well known for his role as the old man "Henry" in the Norwegian sitcom Mot i brøstet

Mot i Brøstet

Mot i Brøstet is a Norwegian situation comedy created by Tore Ryen. It aired on TV 2, running for eight seasons from 1993 to 1997, a total of 141 episodes. It has since been repeated several times on TV2s various channels....

, airing from 1993-1997. In December 2005 Opsahl's death was prematurely announced online by the newspaper VG, an event to which the comedian reacted with humour.
The revue king, Leif Juster

Leif Juster

Leif Juster was a Norwegian comedian, singer and actor, arguably the most popular of his generation in Norway. Juster started out as a variety show performer, and for a period he ran the theater Edderkoppen...

, actually didn't want to use him on stage at first because of his "screaming" voice.

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