[3] In his youth Lindman was a football player, playing defence for the Finland national team during the Olympics in Helsinki 1952.

[6] Lindman began his movie career as an errand boy for Warner Bros. His first larger role as an actor was in Teuvo Tulio's Hornankoski, but his breakthrough as an actor came with his role as the stubborn soldier Lehto in the Edvin Laine film The Unknown Soldier in 1955 for which he received his first Jussi award.

These include the Finnish State Movie Award in 1968, the Pro Finlandia medal in 1982, the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture's Suomi award [fi] in 1995 and the Swedish Order of the Polar Star 1st class in 2007.

He also received three Jussi awards: the first for his role in The Unknown Soldier, the second for directing Den förtrollade vägen in 1988, and the last as recognition of his lifetime works.

In 1932, his father Väinö Järvinen died from pneumonia, and some years later his mother Edit remarried to Gösta Lindman.