HOLLYWOOD LEGEND INGRID BERMAN BORN 1915-DIED 1982 THE SAME DATE AUGUST 29 -4TH GREATEST STAR OUT OF 100 OF AMERICAN CINEMAS
the American Film Institute ranked Bergman as the fourth-greatest female screen legend out of 100 classic American cinema.
Ingrid Bergman (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɪŋːrɪd ˈbærjman]; 29 August 1915 – 29 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films.[2]
She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942) and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946), an Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Cary Grant and Claude Rains.[3]
Before becoming a star in American films, Bergman had been a leading actress in Swedish films. Her introduction to American audiences came with her starring role in the English-language remake of Intermezzo (1939). At her insistence, producer David O. Selznick agreed not to sign her to a contract – for four films rather than the then-standard seven-year period, also at her insistence – until after Intermezzo had been released.
Selznick's financial problems meant that Bergman was often loaned to other studios. Apart from Casablanca, her performances from this period include Victor Fleming's remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Gaslight (1944), and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). Her last films for Selznick were Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946). Her final film for Hitchcock was Under Capricorn (1949).[4]
| Ingrid Bergman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 29 August 1915 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Died | 29 August 1982 (aged 67) London, England |
| Cause of death | Breast cancer |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1932–82 |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children |
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| Parent(s) |
|
After a decade in American films, she starred in Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli (1950), following the revelation that she was having an extramarital affair with the director.
The affair and then marriage with Rossellini created a scandal in the US that forced her to remain in Europe for several years, when she made a successful Hollywood return in Anastasia (1956), for which she won her second Academy Award. Many of her personal and film documents can be seen in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives.[5]
According to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Bergman quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and a contender for Hollywood's greatest leading actress.[6]
In the United States, she is considered to have brought a "Nordic freshness and vitality" to the screen, along with exceptional beauty and intelligence; David O. Selznick once called her "the most completely conscientious actress" he had ever worked with. In 2007,
the American Film Institute ranked Bergman as the fourth-greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema.
Hollywood period: 1939–49[edit]
A Love Story (1939)[edit]
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 (1939), an English language remake of her earlier Swedish film Intermezzo (1936). 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 (born 1938).[7]:63
In Intermezzo, 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.[7]:6 "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".[9] During the following weeks, 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.[11]:135–136
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."[9] 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 (5 ft. 9 in.) girl "with light brown hair and blue eyes who was painfully shy but friendly, with a warm, straight, quick smile."[9] Selznick appreciated her uniqueness, and with his wife Irene, they remained important friends throughout her career.[12]:76
Casablanca (1942)[edit]
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 (The Four Companions). According to one of her biographers,
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."[7]:293–295
After completing one last film in Sweden and appearing in three moderately successful films (Adam Had Four Sons, Rage in Heaven and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, all 1941) in the United States, Bergman co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in the classic film Casablanca (1942),
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."[13] 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."[7]:88
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)[edit]
After Casablanca, with "Selznick's steady boosting," she played the part of Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), 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.
Gaslight (1944)[edit]
The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight (1944), a film in which George Cukor directed her as a "wife driven close to madness" by co-star Charles Boyer.
Hitchcock films[edit]
Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films
Notorious (1946),
and Under Capricorn (1949). She was a student of the acting coach Michael Chekhov during the 1940s. Chekhov acted with Bergman in Spellbound and received his only Academy Award nomination for his performance.[14]
Joan of Arc (1948)[edit]
Bergman received another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), 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,
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.
Later years: 1957–82[edit]
Anastasia (1956)[edit]
With her starring role in 1956's
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.[19] 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 The Turn of the Screw (1959) 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 (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.[20]
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)[edit]
Bergman became one of the few actresses ever to receive three Oscars when she won her third (and first in the category of Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1974). 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."[7]:246–247
Bergman could speak Swedish (her native language), German (her second language, learned from her German mother and in school), English (learned when brought over to the United States), Italian (learned while living in Italy)[21] and French (her third language, learned in school).
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 (1965), Sir John Gielgud in The Constant Wife (1973) and Wendy Hiller in Waters of the Moon (1977–78).[citation needed]
Autumn Sonata (1978)[edit]
In 1978, Bergman played in Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) 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.
A Woman Called Golda (1982) – her final role[edit]
She was offered the starring role in a television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda (1982), 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 Bergman'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."[7]:293
According to Chandler, "Ingrid's rapidly deteriorating health was a more serious problem. Insurance for Bergman 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.[7]:290
Bergman was frequently ill during the filming although she rarely complained or showed it. Four months after the filming was completed, she died, on her 67th birthday. After her death, her daughter Pia accepted her Emmy.[7]:296
Personal life[edit]
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.
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.[9]
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 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.[citation needed]
During her marriage with Lindström, Bergman had a brief affair with Spellbound costar Gregory Peck.[24] 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.”[25][26][27]
Death and legacy[edit]
Ingrid Bergman's grave at Norra Begravningsplatsen
Bergman died in 1982 on her 67th birthday in London, of 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 (Northern Cemetery), Stockholm, Sweden.
According to biographer Donald Spoto, she was "arguably the most international star in the history of entertainment." After her American film debut in the film Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939), 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."[6]
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.[12]:76
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."[9] 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."[9]
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.[17] 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."[7]:11
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.[28]
In March 2015, a picture of Bergman photographed by David Seymour was chosen for the main poster for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. A documentary titled Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words was also screened at the festival.[29]
Autobiography[edit]
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[edit]
Bergman won three Academy Awards for acting, two for Best Actress and one for Best Supporting Actress. She ranks tied for second place in terms of Oscars won, with Walter Brennan
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