Ingrid Bergman

(pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA notation) (29 August, 1915 – 29 August, 1982) was a three-time Academy Award-winning Swedish actress.

Early career

Bergman was born on 29 August, 1915, in Stockholm, Sweden. When she was three years old, her mother died. Her father passed away when she was thirteen. She was afterwards raised by relatives.

Ingrid Bergman studied at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. Her first film role was a small part in 1935's Munkbrogreven (English title, The Count of the Old Town), although it is believed that she had previously been an extra in the 1932 film Landskamp).

After a dozen films in Sweden and one in Germany (including En kvinnas ansikte which would later be remade as A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford), Bergman was signed by Hollywood producer David O. Selznick to star in the English language remake of her 1936 Swedish language film, Intermezzo (1939). It was an enormous success and Bergman became a star, described as "Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood".

Hollywood career

After completing one last film in Sweden and appearing in three moderately successful films in the United States, Bergman joined Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 classic film Casablanca, which remains her most recognizable role.

That same year, she received her first Academy Award nomination: Best Actress in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). The following year she won the Best Actress award for Gaslight (1944). She received a third consecutive nomination for Best Actress with her performance as a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). She would receive another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), a film produced by Howard Hughes which Bergman had championed since her arrival in Hollywood.

She also starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949).

Between motion pictures, Bergman also appeared in several stage plays, including a version of the (^*) Joan of Arc story.

Relationship with Rossellini

In 1949, Bergman met Italian director Roberto Rossellini. She fell in love with him while performing in his film Stromboli (1950). Bergman left her husband, Dr. Aron Petter Lindström and their daughter, Pia Lindström, for Rossellini.

They married on 24 May, 1950, and had three children, a son named Roberto Ingmar Rossellini, and twin daughters, Isabella Rossellini, who is a famous actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini. The affair caused a scandal; Bergman, who was pregnant at the time of the marriage, was branded as "Hollywood's apostle of degradation" and forced to leave the States. Over the next few years, she appeared in several Italian films for Rossellini, including Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (1954), a remake of Joan of Arc. The Rossellini-Bergman marriage ended in divorce on 7 November, 1957.

Back in the United States, anger over her private life continued unabated, with Ed Sullivan at one point infamously polling his TV show audience as to whether she should be forgiven.

Return to Hollywood

With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia, Bergman made her post-scandal triumphant return to Hollywood and won the Best Actress Oscar for a second time. She would continue to alternate between performances in American and European films for the rest of her career and also made occasional appearances in television dramas such as a 1959 production of The Turn of the Screw for Startime for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress.

Bergman received her third Academy Award (and first for Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1975), but she publicly declared at the Academy Awards telecast that year that the award rightfully belonged to Italian actress Valentina Cortese.

In 1978, she played in Ingmar Bergman's Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) for which she received her seventh Academy Award nomination and made her final performance on the big screen. Bergman plays a celebrity pianist who returns to Sweden to visit her neglected daughter, played by Liv Ullman. The film was shot in Norway. It is considered by many to be among Ingrid's best performances.

Bergman was honored posthumously with her second Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1982 for the television mini-series A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. It was her final acting role. One of her co-stars in this mini-series was Leonard Nimoy.

Autobiography

In 1980, Bergman's autobiography was published (with the help of Alan Burgess). Titled simply "My Story", through the book she attempted to reach out to her fans and proceeded to tell the tale of her childhood, stories about the making of the various movies she appeared in, her all too few stage roles, her marriages and subsequent divorces, people who stood by her, the Rossellini scandal, life as a celebrity, etc. Apart from her narrative, there is some transitional input from Alan Burgess.

Death

Bergman died in 1982 in London, England following a long battle with breast cancer on her 67th birthday. Her body was cremated in Sweden and her ashes scattered with a part kept to be interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm. She was honored posthumously by Ingmar Bergman.

Legacy

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ingrid Bergman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6759 Hollywood Blvd. She contines to be a cultural icon, most notably for her role in Casablanca, but also for her career as a whole, and for her innocent beauty. She is considered by many to one of the foremost actresses of the 20th Century.

Skills

Bergman could speak Swedish, German, French, English and Italian fluently, which caused fellow actor John Gielgud to say "She speaks five languages, and can't act in any of them."

Filmography

Landskamp (1932)
Munkbrogreven (The Count of the Old Town) (1935)
Bränningar (The Surf) (1935)
Swedenhielms (Swedenhielms Family) (1935)
Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis Night) (1935)
Intermezzo (1936)
På solsidan (On the Sunny Side) (1936)
Dollar (1938)
Vier Gesellen, Die (The Four Companions) (1938)
En kvinnas ansikte (A Woman's Face) (1938)
En enda natt (Only One Night) (1939)
Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
Juninatten (June Night'') (1940)
Rage in Heaven (1941)
Adam Had Four Sons (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Casablanca (1943)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
Swedes in America (1943) (short subject)
Gaslight (1944)
Spellbound (1945)
Saratoga Trunk (1945)
The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
American Creed (1946) (short subject)
Notorious (1946)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Joan of Arc (1948)
Under Capricorn (1949)
Stromboli (1950)
Europa '51 (The Greatest Love) (1952)
Viaggio in Italia (Journey to Italy) (1953)
Siamo donne (Of Life and Love) (1953)
La Paura (Fear) (1954)
Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (Joan of Arc at the Stake) (1954)
Elena et les hommes (Paris Does Strange Things) (1956)
Anastasia (1956)
Indiscreet (1958)
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
Goodbye Again (1961)
Auguste (1961) (Cameo)
The Visit (1964)
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
Stimulantia (1967)
Cactus Flower (1969)
Henri Langlois (1970) (documentary)
Walk in the Spring Rain (1970)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
A Matter of Time (1976)
Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) (1978)

Television

Startime: The Turn of the Screw (1959)
ABC Stage 67: The Human Voice (1967)
A Woman Called Golda (1982)

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Ingrid Bergman