Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films.
She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and the Tony Award
for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of
all time by the American Film Institute. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund
in Casablanca, a World War II drama co-starring Humphrey Bogart, and as Alicia Huberman in
Notorious, an Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Cary Grant.
Before becoming a star in American films, she had been a leading actress in Swedish
films. Her first introduction to U.S. audiences came with her starring role in the English-language
remake of Intermezzo in 1939. In the United States, she brought to the screen a "Nordic
freshness and vitality", along with exceptional beauty and intelligence, and according to
the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, she quickly became "the ideal of American
womanhood" and one of Hollywood's greatest leading actresses.
After her performance in Victor Fleming's remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1941,
she was noticed by her future producer David O. Selznick, who called her "the most completely
conscientious actress" he had ever worked with. He started her with a one-film role
at her insistence, then signed a four-film contract rather than the typical seven-year
acting contracts typically signed with foreign actors at that time, thereby supporting her
continued success. A few of her other starring roles, besides Casablanca, included For Whom
the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, The Bells of St. Mary's, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, Notorious,
and Under Capricorn, and the independent production Joan of Arc.
In 1950, after a decade of stardom in American films, she starred in the Italian film Stromboli,
which led to a love affair with director Roberto Rossellini while they were both already married.
The affair and then marriage with Rossellini created a scandal that forced her to remain
in Europe until 1956, when she made a successful Hollywood return in Anastasia, for which she
won her second Academy Award, as well as the forgiveness of her fans. Many of her personal
and film documents can be seen in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives.
Early years: 1915–38
Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden, was born in Stockholm, on 29 August 1915 to
a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman, and his German wife, Frieda Henrietta "Friedel"
Bergman. When she was three years of age, her mother died. Her father, who was an artist
and photographer, died when she was thirteen. In the years before he died, he wanted her
to become an opera star, and had her take voice lessons for three years. But she always
"knew from the beginning that she wanted to be an actress," sometimes wearing her mother's
clothes and staging plays in her father's empty studio. Her father documented all her
birthdays with a borrowed camera.
After his death, she was sent to live with an aunt, who died of heart disease only six
months later. She then moved in with her Aunt Hulda and Uncle Otto, who had five children.
Another aunt she visited, Elsa Adler, first told Ingrid, when she was 11, that her mother
may have "some Jewish blood," and that her father was aware of that fact long before
they married. But her aunt also cautioned her about telling others about her possible
ancestry as "there might be some difficult times coming."
At 17, in 1932, Bergman was allowed only one chance to become an actress by entering an
acting competition with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. Bergman recalls her
feelings during that competition:
As I walked off the stage, I was in mourning, I was at a funeral. My own. It was the death
of my creative self. My heart had truly broken... they didn't think I was even worth listening
to, or watching.
Her impression was wrong, as she later met one of the judges who described how the others
viewed her performance:
We loved your security and your impertinence. We loved you and told each other that there
was no reason to waste time as there were dozens of other entrants still to come. We
didn't need to waste any time with you. We knew you were a natural and great. Your future
as an actress was settled.
As a result she received a scholarship to the state-sponsored Royal Dramatic Theatre
School, where Greta Garbo had years earlier earned a similar scholarship. After several
months she was given a part in a new play, Ett Brott, written by Sigfrid Siwertz. Chandler
notes that this was "totally against procedure" at the school, where girls were expected to
complete three years of study before getting such acting roles.
During her first summer break, she was also hired by a Swedish film studio, which led
to her leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre after just one year, to work in films full-time.
Her first film role after leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre was a small part in 1935's
Munkbrogreven. She went on to act in a dozen films in Sweden, including En kvinnas ansikte,
which was later remade as A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford, and one film in Germany, Die
vier Gesellen. Hollywood period: 1939–49
Intermezzo: A Love Story Bergman's first acting role in the United
States came when Hollywood producer David O. Selznick brought her to America to star
in Intermezzo: A Love Story, an English language remake of her 1936 Swedish film, Intermezzo.
Unable to speak English and uncertain about her acceptance by the American audience, she
expected to complete this one film and return home to Sweden. Her husband, Dr. Petter Lindström,
remained in Sweden with their daughter Pia. In the film she played the role of a young
piano accompanist opposite Leslie Howard as a famous violin virtuoso.
She arrived in Los Angeles on 6 May 1939, and stayed at the Selznick home until she
could find another residence. According to Selznick's son, Danny, who was a child at
the time, his father had a few concerns about Ingrid: "She didn't speak English, she was
too tall, her name sounded too German, and her eyebrows were too thick." Bergman was
soon accepted without having to modify her looks or name, despite some early suggestions
by Selznick. "He let her have her way," notes a story in Life Magazine. Selznick understood
her fear of Hollywood make-up artists, who might turn her into someone she wouldn't recognize,
and "instructed them to lay off." He was also aware that her natural good looks would compete
successfully with Hollywood's "synthetic razzle-dazzle." During the weeks following, while Intermezzo
was being filmed, Selznick was also filming Gone with the Wind. In a letter to William
Hebert, his publicity director, Selznick described a few of his early impressions of Bergman:
Miss Bergman is the most completely conscientious actress with whom I have ever worked, in that
she thinks of absolutely nothing but her work before and during the time she is doing a
picture ... She practically never leaves the studio, and even suggested that her dressing
room be equipped so that she could live here during the picture. She never for a minute
suggests quitting at six o'clock or anything of the kind ... Because of having four stars
acting in Gone with the Wind, our star dressing-room suites were all occupied and we had to assign
her a smaller suite. She went into ecstasies over it and said she had never had such a
suite in her life ... All of this is completely unaffected and completely unique and I should
think would make a grand angle of approach to her publicity ... so that her natural
sweetness and consideration and conscientiousness become something of a legend ... and is completely
in keeping with the fresh and pure personality and appearance which caused me to sign her.
Intermezzo became an enormous success and as a result Bergman became a star. The film's
director, Gregory Ratoff, said "She is sensational," as an actress. This was the "sentiment of
the entire set," writes Life, adding that workmen would go out of their way to do things
for her, and the cast and crew "admired the quick, alert concentration she gave to direction
and to her lines." Film historian David Thomson notes that this would become "the start of
an astonishing impact on Hollywood and America" where her lack of makeup contributed to an
"air of nobility." According to Life, the impression that she left on Hollywood, after
she returned to Sweden, was of a tall girl "with light brown hair and blue eyes who was
painfully shy but friendly, with a warm, straight, quick smile." Selznick appreciated her uniqueness,
and with his wife Irene, they remained important friends throughout her career.
Casablanca After the onset of World War II, Bergman "felt
guilty because she had so misjudged the situation in Germany" while she was there filming Die
vier Gesellen. According to one of her biographers, Charlotte Chandler, she had at first considered
the Nazis only a "temporary aberration, 'too foolish to be taken seriously.' She believed
Germany would not start a war." Bergman felt that "The good people there would not permit
it." Chandler adds, "Ingrid felt guilty all the rest of her life because when she was
in Germany at the end of the war, she had been afraid to go with the others to witness
the atrocities of the Nazi extermination camps." After completing one last film in Sweden and
appearing in three moderately successful films in the United States, Bergman co-starred with
Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 classic film Casablanca, which remains her best-known role. In this
film, she played the role of Ilsa, the beautiful Norwegian wife of Victor Laszlo, played by
Paul Henreid, an "anti-Nazi underground hero" who is in Casablanca, a safe-haven from the
Nazis. Bergman did not consider Casablanca to be one of her favorite performances. "I
made so many films which were more important, but the only one people ever want to talk
about is that one with Bogart." In later years she stated, "I feel about Casablanca that
it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled
a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled."
For Whom the Bell Tolls After Casablanca, with "Selznick's steady
boosting," she played the part of Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which was also her
first color film. For the role she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best
Actress. The film was taken from Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same title. When the book was
sold to Paramount Pictures, Hemingway stated that "Miss Bergman, and no one else should
play the part." His opinion came from seeing her in her first American role, Intermezzo,
although he hadn't yet met her. A few weeks later, they did meet, and after studying her
he said, "You are Maria!" Gaslight
The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight, a film in which
George Cukor directed her as a "wife driven close to madness" by co-star Charles Boyer.
The film, according to Thomson, "was the peak of her Hollywood glory." Bergman next played
a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's opposite Bing Crosby, for which she received her third
consecutive nomination for Best Actress. Hitchcock films
Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound, Notorious, and Under Capricorn.
Under Capricorn, the only one of the three made in color, was a costume drama which has
never received the acclaim that the other films that Bergman made with Hitchcock. Bergman
was a student of the acting coach Michael Chekhov during the 1940s. Coincidentally,
it was for his role in Spellbound that Chekhov received his only Academy Award nomination.
Joan of Arc Bergman received another Best Actress nomination
for Joan of Arc, an independent film based on the Maxwell Anderson play Joan of Lorraine,
produced by Walter Wanger, and initially released through RKO. Bergman had championed the role
since her arrival in Hollywood, which was one of the reasons she had played it on the
Broadway stage in Anderson's play. The film was not a big hit with the public, partly
because of the scandal of Bergman's affair with Italian film director Roberto Rossellini,
which broke while the film was still in theatres. Even worse, it received disastrous reviews,
and although nominated for several Academy Awards, did not receive a Best Picture nomination.
It was subsequently shorn of 45 minutes. It was not until it was restored to full length
in 1998 and released in 2004 on DVD that later audiences could see it as it was intended
to be shown. Between motion pictures, Bergman had appeared
in the stage plays Liliom, Anna Christie, and Joan of Lorraine. During a press conference
in Washington, D.C. for the promotion of Joan of Lorraine, she protested against racial
segregation after seeing it first hand at the theater she was acting in. This led to
a lot of publicity and some hate mail. Bergman went to Alaska during World War II to entertain
US Army troops. Soon after the war ended, she also went to Europe for the same purpose,
where she was able to see the devastation caused by the war.
Personal life In 1937, at the age of 21, Bergman married
dentist Petter Aron Lindström, and they had a daughter, Friedel Pia Lindström. After
returning to the United States in 1940, she acted on Broadway before continuing to do
films in Hollywood. The following year, her husband arrived from Sweden with daughter
Pia. Lindström stayed in Rochester, New York, where he studied medicine and surgery at the
University of Rochester. Bergman would travel to New York and stay at their small rented
stucco house between films, her visits lasting from a few days to four months.
According to an article in Life Magazine, the "doctor regards himself as the undisputed
head of the family, an idea that Ingrid accepts cheerfully." He insisted she draw the line
between her film and personal life, as he has a "professional dislike for being associated
with the tinseled glamor of Hollywood." Lindström later moved to San Francisco, California,
where he completed his internship at a private hospital, and they continued to spend time
together when she could travel between filming. Bergman returned to Europe after the scandalous
publicity surrounding her affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini during the filming
of Stromboli in 1950. In the same month the film was released, she gave birth to a boy,
Robertino Rossellini. A week after her son was born, she divorced Lindström and married
Rossellini in Mexico. On 18 June 1952 she gave birth to the twin daughters Isotta Ingrid
Rossellini and Isabella Rossellini. In 1957 she divorced Rossellini.
The next year she married Lars Schmidt, a theatrical entrepreneur from a wealthy Swedish
shipping family. That marriage lasted nearly two decades, until 1975 when they divorced.
During her marriage with Lindstrom, Bergman had a brief affair with Spellbound costar
Gregory Peck. Unlike the affair with Rossellini, that with Peck was kept private until he confessed
it to Brad Darrach of People in an interview five years after Bergman's death. Peck said,
“All I can say is that I had a real love for her, and I think that’s where I ought
to stop…. I was young. She was young. We were involved for weeks in close and intense
work.” Italian period with Rossellini: 1949–57
Bergman strongly admired two films by Italian director Roberto Rossellini that she had seen
in the United States. In 1949, Bergman wrote to Rossellini, expressing this admiration
and suggesting that she make a film with him. This led to her being cast in his film Stromboli.
During production, Bergman fell in love with Rossellini, and they began an affair. Bergman
became pregnant with their son, Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe Rossellini.
This affair caused a huge scandal in the United States, where it led to Bergman being denounced
on the floor of the United States Senate. Ed Sullivan chose not to have her on his show,
despite a poll indicating that the public wanted her to appear. However, Steve Allen,
whose show was equally popular, did have her on, later explaining "the danger of trying
to judge artistic activity through the prism of one's personal life." Spoto notes that
Bergman had, by virtue of her roles and screen persona, placed herself "above all that".
She had played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's and a virgin saint in Joan of Arc. Bergman
later said, "People saw me in Joan of Arc and declared me a saint. I'm not. I'm just
a woman, another human being." As a result of the scandal, Bergman returned
to Italy, leaving her husband and daughter. She went through a publicized divorce and
custody battle for their daughter. Bergman and Rossellini were married on 24 May 1950.
In addition to Renato, they had twin daughters: Isabella Rossellini, who became an actress
and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini, who became a professor of Italian literature.
Stromboli and "neorealism"
Rossellini completed five films starring Bergman between 1949 and 1955: Stromboli, Europa '51,
Viaggio in Italia, Giovanna d'Arco al rogo, and La Paura.
Rossellini directed her in a brief segment of his 1953 documentary film, Siamo donne,
which was devoted to film actresses. His biographer Peter Bondanella notes that problems with
communication during their marriage may have inspired his films' central themes of "solitude,
grace and spirituality in a world without moral values."
Rossellini's use of a Hollywood star in his typically "neorealist" films, in which he
normally used non-professional actors, did provoke some negative reactions in certain
circles. In Bergman's first film with Rossellini, her character was "defying audience expectations"
in that the director preferred to work without a script, forcing Bergman to act "inspired
by reality while she worked,, a style which Bondanella calls "a new cinema of psychological
introspection." Bergman was aware of Rossellini's directing style before filming, as the director
had earlier written to her explaining that he worked from "a few basic ideas, developing
them little by little" as a film progressed. After separating from Rossellini, Bergman
starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men, a romantic comedy in which she played a Polish
princess caught up in political intrigue. Although the film wasn't a success, it has
since come to be regarded as one of her best performances.
Later years: 1957–82 Anastasia
With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia, Bergman made a triumphant return to the American
screen and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. The award was accepted
for her by her friend Cary Grant. Bergman made her first post-scandal public
appearance in Hollywood in the 1958 Academy Awards, when she was the presenter of the
Academy Award for Best Picture. She was given a standing ovation, after being introduced
by Cary Grant and walking out onto the stage to present the award. She continued 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 the Ford Startime TV series—for which she won the Emmy Award for Outstanding
Single Performance by an Actress. During this time, she performed in several
stage plays. She married producer Lars Schmidt, a fellow Swede, on 21 December 1958. This
marriage ended in divorce in 1975. Schmidt died on 18 October 2009. After a long hiatus,
Bergman made the film Cactus Flower in 1969, with Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn.
In 1972, U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for
the attack made on Bergman 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson.
Bergman was the President of the Jury at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
Murder on the Orient Express Bergman became one of the few actresses ever
to receive three Oscars when she won her third for her performance in Murder on the Orient
Express. Director Sidney Lumet offered Bergman the important part of Princess Dragomiroff,
with which he felt she could win an Oscar. She insisted on playing the much smaller role
of Greta Ohlsson, the old Swedish missionary. Lumet discussed Bergman's role:
"She had chosen a very small part, and I couldn't persuade her to change her mind. She was sweetly
stubborn. But stubborn she was... Since her part was so small, I decided to film her one
big scene, where she talks for almost five minutes, straight, all in one long take. A
lot of actresses would have hesitated over that. She loved the idea and made the most
of it. She ran the gamut of emotions. I've never seen anything like it."
Bergman could speak Swedish, German, English, Italian and French. She acted in each of these
languages at various times. Fellow actor John Gielgud, who had acted with her in Murder
on the Orient Express and who had directed her in the play The Constant Wife, playfully
commented: "She speaks five languages and can't act in any of them."
Although known chiefly as a film star, Bergman strongly admired the great English stage actors
and their craft. She had the opportunity to appear in London's West End, working with
such stage stars as Michael Redgrave in A Month in the Country, Sir John Gielgud in
The Constant Wife and Wendy Hiller in Waters of the Moon.
Autumn Sonata
In 1978, Bergman played in Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata for which she received her 7th
Academy Award nomination. This was her final performance on the big screen. In the film,
Bergman plays a celebrity pianist who travels to Norway to visit her neglected daughter,
played by Liv Ullmann. The film was shot in Norway.
In 1979, Bergman hosted the AFI's Life Achievement Award Ceremony for Alfred Hitchcock.
A Woman Called Golda – her final role In 1982 she was offered the starring role
in a television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli prime minister
Golda Meir. It was to be her final acting role and she was honored posthumously with
a second Emmy Award for Best Actress. Her daughter, Isabella, described Ingrid's surprise
at being offered the part and the producer trying to explain to her, "People believe
you and trust you, and this is what I want, because Golda Meir had the trust of the people."
Isabella adds, "Now that was interesting to Mother." She was also persuaded that Golda
was a "grand-scale person," one that people would assume was much taller than she actually
was. Chandler notes that the role "also had a special significance for her, as during
World War II, Ingrid felt guilty because she had so misjudged the situation in Germany."
According to Chandler, "Ingrid's rapidly deteriorating health was a more serious problem. Insurance
for Ingrid was impossible. Not only did she have cancer, but it was spreading, and if
anyone had known how bad it was, no one would have gone on with the project." After viewing
the series on TV, Isabella commented,
She never showed herself like that in life. In life, Mum showed courage. She was always
a little vulnerable, courageous, but vulnerable. Mother had a sort of presence, like Golda,
I was surprised to see it ... When I saw her performance, I saw a mother that I'd never
seen before—this woman with balls.
Bergman was frequently ill during the filming although she rarely complained or showed it.
Four months after the filming was completed, she died. After her death her daughter Pia
accepted her Emmy. Death and legacy
Bergman died in 1982 on her 67th birthday in London, from breast cancer. Her body was
cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, London, and her ashes taken to Sweden. Most of them
were scattered in the sea around the islet of Dannholmen off the fishing village of Fjällbacka
in Bohuslän, on the west coast of Sweden, where she spent most of the summers from 1958
until her death in 1982. The rest were placed next to her parents' ashes in Norra Begravningsplatsen,
Stockholm, Sweden. According to biographer Donald Spoto, she
was "arguably the most international star in the history of entertainment." Acting in
five languages, she was seen on stage, screen and television, and won three Academy Awards
plus many others. After her American film debut in the 1939 film Intermezzo: A Love
Story, co-starring Leslie Howard, Hollywood saw her as a unique actress who was completely
natural in style and without need of makeup. Film critic James Agee wrote that she "not
only bears a startling resemblance to an imaginable human being; she really knows how to act,
in a blend of poetic grace with quiet realism." According to film historian David Thomson,
she "always strove to be a 'true' woman", and many filmgoers identified with her:
There was a time in the early and mid-1940s when Bergman commanded a kind of love in America
that has been hardly ever matched. In turn, it was the strength of that affection that
animated the "scandal" when she behaved like an impetuous and ambitious actress instead
of a saint.
Writing about her first years in Hollywood, Life magazine stated that "All Bergman vehicles
are blessed," and "they all go speedily and happily, with no temperament from the leading
lady." She was "completely pleased" with her early career's management by David O. Selznick,
who always found excellent dramatic roles for her to play, and equally satisfied with
her salary, once saying, "I am an actress and I am interested in acting, not in making
money." Life adds that "she has greater versatility than any actress on the American screen ...
her roles have demanded an adaptability and sensitiveness of characterization to which
few actresses could rise." She continued her acting career while suffering
from cancer for eight years, and won international honors for her final roles. "Her spirit triumphed
with remarkable grace and courage," adds Spoto. Director George Cukor once summed up her contributions
to the film media when he said to her, "Do you know what I especially love about you,
Ingrid, my dear? I can sum it up as your naturalness. The camera loves your beauty, your acting,
and your individuality. A star must have individuality. It makes you a great star. A great star."
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Bergman has a star on the Hollywood
Walk of Fame at 6759 Hollywood Blvd. Woody Guthrie wrote the erotic song "Ingrid
Bergman," which references Bergman's relationship with Roberto Rosselini on the film "Stromboli."
It was never recorded by Guthrie but, when later found in the Woody Guthrie archives,
it was set to music, and recorded, by Billy Bragg on the album Mermaid Avenue.
Autobiography
In 1980, Bergman's autobiography was published under the title Ingrid Bergman: My Story.
It was written with the help of Alan Burgess, and in it she discusses her childhood, her
early career, her life during her time in Hollywood, the Rossellini scandal, and subsequent
events. The book was written after her children warned her that she would only be known through
rumors and interviews if she did not tell her own story. It was through this autobiography
that her affair with Robert Capa became known. Awards
Bergman won three Academy Awards for acting, two for Best Actress and one for Best Supporting
Actress. She ranks in equal second place in terms of Oscars won, with Walter Brennan,
Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Katharine Hepburn still leads the record with
four. Filmography
Notes
References Bergman, Ingrid; Burgess, Alan. Ingrid Bergman:
My Story. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-03299-7. Chandler, Charlotte. Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman,
A Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-9421-1.
Leamer, Laurence. As Time Goes By: The Life of Ingrid Bergman. New York: Harper & Row.
ISBN 0-06-015485-3. Dagrada, Elena. Le Varianti Trasparenti. I
Film con Ingrid Bergman di Roberto Rossellini. Milano: LED Edizioni Universitarie. ISBN 978-88-7916-410-8.
Ziolkowska-Boehm, Aleksandra. Ingrid Bergman prywatnie. Warsaw: Proszynski. ISBN 978-83-7839-518-8.
Ziolkowska-Boehm, Aleksandra. Ingrid Bergman and her American Relatives. Lanham, MD: Hamilton
Books. ISBN 978-0-7618-6150-8. External links
Biographical profiles Ingrid Bergman at the Internet Movie Database
Ingrid Bergman at the TCM Movie Database Ingrid Bergman at the Internet Broadway Database
TCM Confidential: Ingrid Bergman Official sites
Ingrid Bergman site run by CMG Ingrid Bergman Collection at Wesleyan University
Ingrid Bergman site run by Schirmer/Mosel Publishers Munich
Interviews 1943 New York Times Interview
Larry King transcript with Ingrid Bergman's daughters on the 60th anniversary of Casablanca
Excerpt from Isabella Rossellini's Some of Me that describes Ingrid Bergman's passion
for cleaning Trailer from Isabella Rossellini's Ingrid
Bergman A Life in Pictures Videos
(French) Television interview by Radio-Canada reporter Judith Jasmin on 15 July 1957
(French) Television interview on JT 20H on 22 February 1959
(French) Television interview by France Roche on Cinépanorama on 19 November 1960
Audios Radio rich media may be found in the radio
credits table. Ingrid Bergman's Spoken Word Version of The
Pied Piper of Hamelin Audio Recording of Ingrid Bergman in the NY
Production of More Stately Mansions Other
Photographs and bibliography Photos of Ingrid Bergman in 'Spellbound' by
Ned Scott