Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films.
Background
Bergman was born on 29 August 1915 in Stockholm, to a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman (2 May 1871 – 29 July 1929), and his German wife, Friedel Henrietta Augusta Louise (née Adler) Bergman (12 September 1884 – 19 January 1918), who was born in Kiel. Her parents married in Hamburg in 1907. She was named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden. She mainly grew up in Sweden, but spent the summers in Germany, and spoke fluent German.
When she was two years old, her mother died. Her father, who was an artist and photographer, died when she was 13. 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, whom Ingrid called "Mutti", reportedly told a family legend to the 11-year-old, according to Charlotte Chandler's biography of Ingrid Bergman, that her mother may have had "some Jewish blood".
Education
She received her primary education from private schools. As a young girl, she developed an interest in acting and performed regularly in her school plays. While attending a private academy, Lyceum Flickor, Bergman appeared in many stage productions. Bergman graduated from Lyceum Flickor in 1933 and entered the Royal Dramatic Theater School in Stockholm.
She excelled at the school and proved herself to be a naturally talented actress. She received prominent roles in plays within one year of her joining. She was hired by a Swedish film studio during her first summer break and left the theatre to embark on a full-time acting career.
In 1935, Bergman appeared in her first film role, as a maid in Munkbrogreven (also known as Count from Munkbro and The Count of the Monk's Bridge). Her dramatic abilities were noticed by Swedish film director Gustaf Molander, who signed Bergman to a contract in 1935.
Within a short time, Bergman had become one of Sweden's up and coming actresses, with increasingly large roles in films such as Astrid in Swedenhielms (The Family Swedenhielms; 1936). The movie that propelled her star higher was Intermezzo (1936). In that film, Bergman played pianist Anita Hoffman, who has an illicit affair with a famous, but still married, violin player. After a period together, Bergman's character ultimately gives him up and he goes back to his wife and family. After the success of Intermezzo, Bergman appeared in three more films directed by Molander in 1937: Swedenhielms (1937), Dollar (1937), and Pa Solsidan.
Bergman's performance in Intermezzo was brought to the attention of Hollywood movie producer, David O. Selznick. He bought the rights for an American remake of the film, with Bergman attached to the project. However, Bergman was undecided about the offer. She had film opportunities in Germany as well, and made Die Vier Gesellen in 1937. After making two more films in Sweden with Moldander—En Enda Natt (Only One Night; 1938) and En Kvinnas Ansikte (A Woman's Face; 1938)—Bergman went to the United States in 1939. Based on the the acclaim for her work in the film, Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939), Selznick signed her to a seven-year contract.
After a brief return to Sweden to make Juninatten (A Night in June; 1940), Bergman spent the next eight years in the United States. While Selznick had Bergman under contract, he wanted her to play wholesome roles. Yet she actually only made two films for him, while the rest were productions to which Selznick loaned her services. Under Selznick's guidance, Bergman became a beloved figure in the United States in the 1940s, and was regarded as a saint. Her first roles—Adam Had Four Sons and Rage in Heaven (both 1941)—set the tone.
Bergman hoped to play more than just idealized women. When she was cast as the rich fiancee of Dr. Jekyll in a version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), she and costar Lana Turner approached director, Victor Fleming, and movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about switching roles. Bergman showed her range by playing a lewd barmaid. Though many believed that this was ultimately a good move for her career, some contemporary critics believed the role was wrong for her and that her performance was not successful. Bergman made other career choices that were important to her future. She insisted on doing some theater, making her Broadway debut in 1940 while appearing in Liliom for three months. In 1941, she also appeared on stage in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie. The production was produced by the Selznick Company.
Throughout the 1940s, Bergman played characters both dark and refined. In 1942, she appeared in one of her best known and most beloved roles, Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart. As Ilsa Lund Lazlo, a woman torn between two lovers, Bergman displayed her talent for playing women in tormented, suffering romances. While films like Casablanca were a success creatively and at the box office, not all had both qualities. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) did well at the box office, though it was not a great movie. Critics made similar arguments for Rage in Heaven (1945), Saratoga Trunk (1945)—in which Bergman unconvincingly played a Creole—and Bells of St. Mary (1945). Though Bergman won several awards for her role as nun in Bells, the movie was considered rather light.
Bergman did make other movies that attracted a large audience while being artistically challenging. She won awards for her work in the thriller Gaslight (1944), in which she played a wife driven to the brink of insanity. Bergman also appeared in two films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In Spellbound (1945), Bergman played a psychiatrist. Some critics believed that her best acting work came in his Notorious (1946), an espionage film. Notorious was the last movie made under Bergman's contract with Selznick. She was finally free to make her own career moves.
Bergman's decision to play Joan of Arc in the 1946 Broadway production of Joan of Lorraine was one of her best. In its 25-week appearance, box-office receipt records were shattered and critics were nearly unanimous in their praise. Her next three films featured mediocre performances and failed at the box office. Bergman was forgettable as a hooker in Arch of Triumph (1948). She then played Joan of Arc in a movie based on the same source as her successful stage play. Though this was Bergman's favorite film role, the film lost $3 million. Unhappy in Hollywood, Bergman returned to Europe to make another film with Hitchcock in London. Under Capricorn (1949), in which she played a drunken Irish aristocrat, was also unsuccessful.
Bergman had admired the work of Italian neo-realist director, Roberto Rossellini, for several years before sending him a fan letter. In the note, she told him she was available for any film roles he might have. Bergman hoped that making a film with Rossellini would jump start her career. Rossellini rewrote a part in his new script for her. The movie was Stromboli (1949).
She was vilified in the United States for her actions and unable to find work in Hollywood for seven years. Senator Edward C. Johnson denounced her and the film company who distributed Stromboli on the Senate floor. He proposed a licensing system for foreign actors so they could be thrown out of the country on immoral grounds. Further, the six films Bergman made with Rossellini were all box office failures. Only a couple of them were artistic successes for Bergman. The first Stromboli (1949) was among them. In the movie, she played a Lithuanian immigrant who tries to build a new life on an island off of Sicily. The film explored her reaction to this unfamiliar world. Bergman's work in Europa '51 (1952) and Viaggio in Italia (Voyage in Italy; 1953) was also noteworthy.
In the first five years of their marriage, Rossellini did not allow Bergman to work with anyone else. In 1955, he permitted her make a film with the famed French director, Jean Renoir. Elena et les hommes (Paris Does Strange Things) helped to reestablish Bergman's reputation.
Bergman returned to Hollywood in 1956 and played the title role in Anastasia. Though she would continue to work regularly in film throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it was not until the 1970s that she made great movies again. In 1959, she made her television debut, and would appear often in the medium for several years. By the mid-1960s, Bergman returned to the stage. She made her London stage debut in 1965 with A Month in the Country. In 1967, she appeared on the American stage for the first time in 21 years in More Stately Mansions.
In the 1970s, Bergman continued to appear on stage and television, but it was in film that she received most acclaim. In 1974, she appeared in Murder on the Orient Express. In 1978, Bergman worked with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in his Autumn Sonata. Many thought this was one of Bergman's best performances, playing a talented pianist who failed as a mother. Around the time she divorced her third husband, in 1975, Bergman was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. While she fought the disease, Bergman continued to work—but only if the role interested her.
Bergman's last role was on television in 1982. She played Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, in the miniseries A Woman Called Golda. Though Bergman was ill, she received critical kudos for her accurate performance. Bergman finally succumbed to cancer on her 67th birthday, August 29, 1982, in London, England.
Bergman was a Lutheran once saying of herself, "I'm tall, Swedish and Lutheran".
Views
Quotations:
She had told Judy Kelmesrud of The New York Times a couple of years before her death, "I'm happy it all happened to me. I've had a very rich life. There was never a dull moment. When I was very young in Sweden, I used to pray 'God, please don't let me have a dull life.' And He obviously heard me."
"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."
"Be yourself. The world worships the original."
"I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn't shut up!"
"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."
"Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get."
"You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide."
"I've never sought success in order to get fame and money; it's the talent and the passion that count in success."
"Cancer victims who don't accept their fate, who don't learn to live with it, will only destroy what little time they have left."
"I have grown up alone. I've taken care of myself. I worked, earned money and was independent at 18."
Personality
As an actress she was known for her punctuality and dedication towards her work. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Bergman was not known to wear much make-up or dress in expensive and elaborate attires.
Physical Characteristics:
Ingrid Bergman was the most natural actress in Hollywood. When she first arrived in this country, David O. Selznick wanted to pluck her eyebrows, cap her teeth, and change her name ("how about Barrymore?" he suggested). But Ingrid, forever true to herself, would have none of it. Selznick had to think of a different way to market/typecast her, so she became the "natural goddess," wearing little to no makeup on screen and appearing most often in wholesome, saintly roles, so much so that the public saw the private Ingrid as one and the same. Thus, they were all the more shocked and scandalized when their St. Ingrid of Stockholm had a love affair with her Italian director in 1950. But she was natural - natural at acting, and natural in her beauty.
Quotes from others about the person
According to biographer Donald Spoto, she was "arguably the most international star in the history of entertainment. "
David O. Selznick once called her "the most completely conscientious actress" he had ever worked with.
Connections
In 1937, at the age of 21, Bergman married dentist Petter Aron Lindström (later to become a neurosurgeon); the couple had a daughter, Friedel Pia Lindström (born 20 September 1938). 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.
Doctor regarded himself as the undisputed head of the family, an idea that Ingrid accepted 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, Roberto Ingmar Rossellini (born 2 February 1950). 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, Rossellini had an affair with Sonali Das Gupta. Soon after, Bergman and Rossellini separated. Rossellini later married Sonali Das Gupta in 1957. Ingrid would marry Lars Schmidt in 1958, a theatrical entrepreneur from a wealthy Swedish shipping family. Curiously, while vacationing with Lars in Monte Gordo beach (Algarve region, Portugal) in 1963, right after recording the TV movie "Hedda Gabler", Ingrid got ticketed for wearing a bikini that showed too much according to the modesty standards of conservative Portugal. After almost two decades of marriage, Ingrid and Lars divorced in 1975.
During her marriage with Lindström, Bergman had a brief affair with Spellbound co-star 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 (Bergman), 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."
Father:
Justus Samuel Bergman
Mother:
Friedel Henrietta Augusta Louise (née Adler) Bergman