Ingrid Bergman(1915 — 1982)
Ingrid Bergman
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Swedish actress (1915–1982), a towering figure of classic Hollywood cinema. Made famous by Casablanca (1942), she won three Academy Awards and established herself as one of the greatest actresses of the twentieth century.
Famous Quotes
« I have never done anything thinking about what people would say about it. »
« Happiness is good health and a bad memory. »
Key Facts
- 1915: Born in Stockholm, Sweden
- 1942: Role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca alongside Humphrey Bogart
- 1944: First Academy Award for Gaslight
- 1950: Media scandal following her affair with Roberto Rossellini; blacklisted from Hollywood
- 1974: Third Academy Award for Murder on the Orient Express
Works & Achievements
A landmark film by Michael Curtiz in which Bergman plays Ilsa Lund, a woman torn between love and duty during World War II. It has become one of the most quoted films in cinema history and remains the most iconic role of her career.
A psychological thriller by George Cukor in which Bergman plays a woman manipulated by her husband into believing she is losing her mind. Her shattering performance earned her her first Academy Award for Best Actress.
A spy thriller by Alfred Hitchcock in which Bergman plays a woman infiltrating a Nazi network in Argentina. One of her most complex roles, weaving together love, sacrifice, and moral ambiguity.
A film by Roberto Rossellini shot on the volcano of the eponymous island, symbolizing Bergman's break with Hollywood and her entry into European neorealism. The shoot also marked the beginning of their life together.
A film by Anatole Litvak marking Bergman's triumphant return to Hollywood after seven years in exile. She plays a mysterious young woman claiming to be the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, a role that won her her second Oscar.
Sidney Lumet's adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel, in which Bergman plays a Swedish missionary. Her restrained and moving turn in this supporting role earned her her third and final Oscar.
A film by Ingmar Bergman in which Ingrid Bergman plays a celebrated concert pianist forced to confront the daughter she long neglected. Widely regarded as her late-career masterpiece and one of the greatest performances in cinema history.
Anecdotes
On the set of Casablanca (1942), Ingrid Bergman admitted she had no idea which actor her character would choose in the end — because the screenwriters themselves hadn't decided yet. Director Michael Curtiz maintained this ambiguity to the very last, and that genuine uncertainty is written all over the actress's face in one of the most celebrated scenes in world cinema.
In 1949, Ingrid Bergman wrote a bold letter to Italian director Roberto Rossellini, expressing her admiration for his film Rome, Open City and proposing they work together. That letter changed her life: she left Hollywood, fell in love with Rossellini, and had a child with him before they married — triggering a scandal so enormous that a US senator denounced her before Congress as an apostle of degradation and she was banned from Hollywood for seven years.
Ingrid Bergman is one of the few actresses to have won three Academy Awards: Best Actress for Gaslight (1945) and Anastasia (1957), then Best Supporting Actress for Murder on the Orient Express (1975). When she received that third Oscar, she publicly paid tribute to her rival Valentina Cortese, genuinely believing it was she who deserved the award.
For her triumphant return to Hollywood with Anastasia (1956), after seven years of forced exile following the Rossellini scandal, Ingrid Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Actress. But she was unable to attend the ceremony in Los Angeles, still being persona non grata in the United States: it was Cary Grant who accepted the award on her behalf, and the audience gave her a standing ovation.
Ingrid Bergman learned in 1974 that she had breast cancer, the same year she was filming Murder on the Orient Express. She continued to work with remarkable energy for eight years, keeping her illness private for a long time. She died on August 29, 1982 — her 67th birthday — in London, leaving behind a career that spanned three continents and five decades.
Primary Sources
I have no regrets. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were going to say.
If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only 'ti amo', I am ready to come and make a film with you.
Mrs. Rossellini, who has become a powerful, notorious apostle of degradation... Under our law, no alien guilty of turpitude can set foot on American soil again.
I am a Swedish actress. I want to remain myself, to play real roles — not always a film heroine without flaws or weaknesses.
Key Places
Ingrid Bergman's birthplace, where she grew up as an orphan, studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre and launched her film career. Sweden always remained at the heart of her identity, and she returned there regularly throughout her life.
The world capital of cinema, where Bergman established herself as one of the greatest stars of the Golden Age (1939–1949), working under the direction of Hitchcock, Cukor, Fleming, and Curtiz. She built her international reputation there before being effectively blacklisted.
The city where Bergman joined Roberto Rossellini in 1949, marking her break with Hollywood and her immersion in European neorealist cinema. This radical choice transformed both her personal life and her artistic path.
The filming location for Rossellini's *Stromboli* (1950), shot on this active volcano in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was here that their affair became public, triggering the international scandal that led to Bergman's banishment from the United States.
Bergman settled in London in the final years of her life, after periods spent on three continents. It was in this city that she died on August 29, 1982 — the very day of her 67th birthday.