Bjørn Skagestad delivers via Dagbladet: - Mari, will you marry me?

We are sitting at a gastropub in Oslo, which boasts more than 300 different akevittyper and talking. About life and death, love and old age - and about the future. Strong matters, not akevitten, which is allowed to be in peace, but the actual conversation.

Actor Bjørn Skagestad is in nice førjulsflyt, "Cyrano" at the national theatre yesterday for the full house, the sons are delivered in the nursery and the holiday trip to the house in Spain is in the box.

Proposes to his girlfriend

He talks about his girlfriend Mari Both (43), whom he met in 2005. She has been a dancer, including eleven years in London and two years in Tokyo.

I love her, " he says. Then stops, he up, and add:

I will propose to her, now! Via The Newspaper. Mari, will you marry me.

Bjørn Skagestad is even a little surprised at what he says, but adds that the way it must be. The couple has hung together for a long time, and after that the sons Bastian (4,5) and Jeppe (2,5) came to the world, they talked about to enter into marriage.

But I have not been delivered, yet. So now I do it. Hope she doesn't think this is lame, and that she gives me a yes, says Skagestad and smiles.

- LOVE HER: When Mari Both read this, she learns that his partner and lover, Bjorn Skagestad, actually delivers via the Newspaper. Photo: Private Show more 50 years on the stage

He is now the oldest male actor at the national theatre. Skagestad made his debut 50 years ago at the Rogaland Theatre, where he kicked off his career as a teaterelev. It's been a long life in Thalias service; on the stage, movie screen and in television series.

- Vekselbruk is exciting, I like variety.

- I have a fallossymbol right in the face. Plus,

Bear, we are on first-name terms now, approaching 70 years of age, but is still a great and beautiful man: slender, tall with a skarpskårent face, becoming gray hårmanke and a slightly distanced and cool look. There is a defiance there, an arrogance, something brewing.

Førsteelsker and asshole

- There have been many roles that førsteelsker, and eventually came skurkerollene. There are those who are gøyest to play. I don't know why I have played so many assholes, now that the cynical and sleske Le Guiche in "Cyrano". Might have something with my shyness to do, which is taken to be arrogance.

Bjørn Skagestad is not one who shouts loudly, gesturing wildly, or call attention to oneself.

He thrives under the radar. Birthdays celebrate he did not, and premierefester he tries to sneak away. Just like on "Cyrano", then all, one by one, was clapped up to the podium and praised by the director of the theater Hanne Tømta.

Miss Minken Fosheim

I have few close friends, also among actors. But the ones I have, I am happy in. I lost perhaps the very closest friend in the summer: Minken Fosheim I think of her every day. It was at this time last year, we understood how seriously ill she was, he says, and adds:

FATHER: - Mari approached 40 years, and would have children. Her biological clock was ticking, I resisted, " says Bjørn Skagestad. Photo: Bjørn Langsem Show more

- I miss her intensely. Life is no joke.

Bjørn Skagestad speaks a lot about his family, about his girlfriend who is an anchor in life. And about the home in Slemdal, which is his harbour, where "the guys", as he calls them, is all-consuming.

"Guys my"

- It is not quite as pleasurable longer had to run, or bike, down to the theatre every night. I miss many nights with the guys, leggetida often goes down the drain. I have been more stuegris, and would rather just be at home with Mari and the guys. But I will still play the theater after I fill 70 years. I think that's been safer and better with the years, and still has much to give.

He would not for any price be without the guys their. But to be a father again, 40 years after the daughter's Line came to the world, set far inside.

NAME: Photo taken in the summer, Bjørn Skagestad toys on a beach in the Lofoten islands, together with Bastian and Jeppe. - They have given me a new perspective on life. Photo: Private Show more

Mari approached 40 years, and would have children. Her biological clock was ticking, I resisted. Was skeptical and afraid that I was too old. Could I be the father again, would I do it?

- I don't regret a second!

He is 70 years of age when eldstemann begins in the school. His mother passed away last year at the age of 95 years. He hopes that her genes can give him many good years to.

MARI AND BEAR: " We met at the Artisan one night, she was 30 years old and I am 54. We became lovers that night, " says Bjørn about Mari Both. Photo: Private Show more Thinking on death

- It is clear I think of death. It is a race, I would like to see the guys my grow up. Any time to they leave the nest, and longer. When one becomes a father at my age, come many questions and other issues. May well I don't want to follow the guys all the way to planning, not to make them embarrassed, so they don't have to hear: "Is it grandfather?"

GUYS MY: Bjørn Skagestad and sons Bastian and Jeppe, or just "the guys "my". Photo: Private Show more

- However, the time - the grief, he says, and laughs.

Skipperburgeren is consumed, farrisglasset is empty, and the waiter gives kaffepåfyll. Bear smiles, also with the islands, while he claws him on the cheek, peck in a little bit in the gray beard and continues to do something he really dislikes: talking about himself.

Dropped surgery

The bullet you have on the neck, under the ear. It looks a little creepy?

ON NAOBORDET: It shows up two kjenninger, Magnus Tindberg (t.v), the son of Skagestads colleague Svein Tindberg, and svein's brother, director Ivar Tindberg. - No, so nice to see you again, " says Bear. Photo. Anders Grønnenberg Show more

- It is a fettkul, who came about 30 years ago and that's been a little larger, but it is completely harmless. I would remove it before the recording of "Kristin Lavransdatter" in 1993. But the doctor said that there is so many ansiktsnerver as up, and that I risked to get paralysis and be lopsided in the face. So I dropped it, but maybe I take the operation a beautiful day, " he says.

Bjørn Skagestad as the actor described as willfully and defiantly.

I have given to the directors and teatersjefer occupational resistance, more before than now. I may have been a little fractious. Remember, I'm 68, from a generation that stood up against authority, even though I was never any radicals who stood on the barricades.

Backbiting in the theater

He is happy in the national theatre, his second home. He gets questions about what is friction and pointy elbows in such a creative environment with many strong personalities?

LOVE: - I love my girlfriend, Mari. Now I will marry me with her, " says Bear. Photo: Private Show more

- When I started, it could be awful, he says:

- Major contradictions, strong and selvhøytidelige actors, officers, and directors, but it's thankfully been much better. It is clear that something backbiting occurs, and it is not so strange when many vying for the same roles.

Bjørn Skagestad has landed in life. He says he is lucky, has what he needs - not least the peace and the perspective the sons has given him.

- When I stand in the wings and know on the nerves, I think of Bastian and Jeppe. Then loosen the knot in the diaphragm and I become calmer. It always helps to think of the guys my.

- Dear Vidar, will you marry me?