Award-wining actress Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 29, 1915. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. When she was 17, she auditioned for the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and was accepted. She was then hired in a Swedish film studio, eventually leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre to work on films full time. In 1935, she was cast in a small part in Munkbrogreven and was an extra in 1932’s Landskamp. She appeared in a dozen more films, and was signed by the Hollywood producer David Selznick to star in his film. It was a remake of her 1936 Swedish language film Intermezzo, which became an instant success.
Ingrid Bergman then left Sweden after completing one last film there. She then made other successful Hollywood films upon moving to the United States. In 1942, she became well-known for her role in Casablanca, opposite Humphrey Bogart. She didn’t consider it to be one of her favorite performances despite its number of fans. That year, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her first color film, For Whom the Bell Tolls. She next won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the character Paula Alquist in Gaslight. Her third Oscar nomination came when she played Sister Benedict in The Bells of St. Mary’s, and her fourth Oscar nomination for Joan of Arc by Walter Wanger in 1948. She also starred in several Alfred Hitchcock films, including Spellbound in 1945 and Notorious in 1946.
In 1949, Bergman met director Roberto Rossellini. She was cast in his film Stromboli. She became pregnant with his son, leading her to be unwelcome in America. She then exiled herself to Italy. She married Rossellini in 1950 but divorced him in 1957. She then starred in the romantic comedy Elena and Her Men in 1956. Berman’s starring role in Anastasia in 1956 marked her triumphant return to Hollywood. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the second time. She then appeared in the television drama The Turn of the Screw, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress. Her third Academy Award came when she was given a role in Murder on the Orient Express, but she admitted in her speech that the award rightfully belonged to actress Valentina Cortese. Bergman was also a participant of London’s West End, working on stage productions like A Month in the Country in 1965 and Waters of the Moon in the 1970s.
Bergman’s final acting role was in the television mini-series A Woman Called Golda, which won her her second Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1982. She died on her birthday that year in London, England, because of a long battle with breast cancer.