Ingrid Bergman

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 Aron Lindström, remained in Sweden with their daughter Pia (born 1938).[6]^: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 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.[6]^: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".[11] 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.[12]^: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 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".[11] Film historian David Thomson notes that this became "the start of an astonishing impact on Hollywood and America", where her lack of make-up 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".[11] Selznick appreciated her uniqueness, and with his wife Irene, they remained important friends throughout her career.[13]^:76

After Rage in Heaven and Adam Had Four Sons, Bergman was tired of playing saintly, good girl roles. For her next film, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde co- starring Spencer Tracy and Lana Turner, Bergman was slated to play Tracy's character fiancee but pleaded with director Victor Fleming that she played "bad girl" Ivy instead of Turner. Critics and audience praised Bergman's performance as excellent and breathtaking.

During filming, Tracy said to be infatuated with the 26-year-old Bergman. Despite of them both being married at the time, they did have a short affair. Tracy even threatened to leave the film if MGM picked Turner to play his love interest.[14]

With Humphrey Bogart in 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 (The Four Companions). According to one of her biographers, Charlotte Chandler (2007), 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".[6]^:293–295 In 1945, she and her first husband, Dr. Petter Aron Lindström, who wed on 10 July 1937 in Stöde,[8] became United States citizens.[8][8]

After completing a final 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), which remains her best-known role. Her line "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By", has been voted at no 28 in the list of AFI's 100 Movie Quotes.[15] 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 haven from the Nazis.[6]

One of the most iconic on-screen pairings in movies

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."[16] 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".[6]^:88

Biographer Charlotte Chandler said that Bergman wanted out of the film because the film had no finished script and having scenes rewritten as the filming progress. Bergman also had difficulty of connecting with Bogart whose wife accusing them of having an affair despite of Bogart chose to mostly remain in his trailer off scene. In his romantic scenes with his costar, Bogart said that he did not do anything he hasn't done before but when someone looks like Ingrid Bergman and she tells you that she loves you, that would make anybody feel romantic.[17]

Romantic scene with Gary Cooper in "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

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 and co-starred Gary Cooper. 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!".[11]

With Charles Boyer in Gaslight (1944)

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 her husband, played by Charles Boyer. Going into filming, Bergman was worried that she was unable to portray a timid and fragile character. She viewed herself as an independent and strong woman and her taking the role as a great challenge as an actress. Bergman even went to a mental hospital in order to study about nervous breakdowns. David O. Selznick wanted Ingrid Bergman as top billing instead of Boyer. Bergman pleaded to Selznick that she was very keen on the role and wanted so much to work with Boyer she did not even care not to get top billing. Selznick relented.[18]

Filming their first love scene made Bergman really uncomfortable. She had just met Boyer. Bergman was known to have like rehearsals to get to know her costars better. The film, according to Thomson, "was the peak of her Hollywood glory".[13]^:77

Bergman next played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), opposite Bing Crosby, for which she received her third consecutive nomination for Best Actress. In the film she played Sister Benedict who always at odds with Crosby's Father O'Malley on how to run a school. This was a sequel to Going My Way (1944) and was the top grossing movie of 1945.

Reunited with Gary Cooper in "Saratoga Trunk" (1945)

Bergman also starred in Saratoga Trunk (1945), reuniting with Gary Cooper though the film was originally shot in 1943 but not released until 1945.[19]

Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), 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.[20]

"Spellbound" (1945)

Spellbound, Bergman first of three collaborations with Alred Hitchcock was a story about psychoanalysis which famous for a dream sequence by Salvador Dalí. Bergman played Dr Constance Petersen, a cold, bookish and detached psychiatrist whose analysis could determine whether or not Dr Anthony Edwardes, played by Gregory Peck is guilty of murder or not. Along the way, they fell in love. The film was a box office smashing hit when it released in 1945 which had been a very successful year for Ingrid Bergman.

Then, came Notorious, the second and perhaps the most successful out of three films with Hitchcock. Bergman played a US spy, a daughter of convicted traitor during World War 2 who had been given an assignment to infiltrate the Nazi symphatizers in South America. Along the way, she fell in love with her fellow spy, played by Cary Grant. The pairing of Bergman and Grant was sure to be a huge success because they were both at top of their game.

Ingrid Bergman in "Notorious" (1946)

The making of the film proved to be one of the most satisfying experience for Hitchcock and his two megastars. Bergman was known for her perfectionism. Despite that, she was able to enchant both Hitchcock and Grant during the production. Hitchcock was even ready to accept Bergman's input and suggestions regarding her role of Alicia. It also helped that Grant and Bergman had a remarkable and sizzling chemistry. Dubbed as two most iconic of Hitchcock stars who brought their most attractive and mysterious qualities to the film.[21]

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, 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 cut by 45 minutes, but restored to full length in 1998, and released in 2004 on DVD.

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.

With husband Roberto Rossellini in 1951

Rossellini completed five films starring Bergman between 1949 and 1955: Stromboli, Europa '51, Viaggio in Italia, Giovanna d'Arco al rogo, and La Paura (Fear).

Rossellini directed her in a brief segment of his 1953 documentary film, Siamo donne (We, the Women), which was devoted to film actresses.[22]^:18 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".[22]^:19

Memorial plaque on the house in Stromboli where Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini lived during filming of Stromboli in 1949

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'".[22]^:98 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.[22]^:19

After separating from Rossellini, Bergman starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes, 1956), a romantic comedy in which she played a Polish princess caught up in political intrigue.

With Mel Ferrer in Elena and Her Men (1957).

With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia (1956), Bergman made a triumphant return to working for a Hollywood studio (albeit in a film produced in Europe) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. Its director, Anatole Litvak, described her as "one of the greatest actresses in the world". He also offered his description of her at the time:

Ingrid looks better now than she ever did. She's 42, but she looks divine. She is a simple, straightforward human being. Through all her troubles she held to the conviction that she had been true to herself and it made her quite a person. She is happy in her new marriage, her three children by Rossellini are beautiful, and she adores them.[26]

With Cary Grant in Indiscreet (1957).

She starred in the 1958 picture The Inn Of Sixth Happiness, based on a true story about a Christian missionary woman to China. Bergman made her first post-scandal public appearance in Hollywood at the 30th Academy Awards in 1959 when she was the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Picture.[27] She was given a standing ovation after being introduced by Cary Grant as she walked 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 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. After a long hiatus, Bergman made the film Cactus Flower (1969), with Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn. In this movie, she played a dental nurse-receptionist who is secretly in love with her boss, the dentist, played by Matthau. The New York Times wrote "The teaming of Matthau, whose dour, craggy virility now supplants the easy charm of Barry Nelson, and the ultra-feminine Miss Bergman, in a rare comedy venture, was inspirational on somebody's part. The lady is delightful as a (now) 'Swedish iceberg', no longer young, who flowers radiantly while running interference for the boss's romantic bumbling. The two stars mesh perfectly."[28] After the success of Cactus Flower, Bergman moved on to another film that paired her once again with Anthony Quinn, A Walk in the Spring Rain. It was critically panned.

In addition to her film work, Bergman also acted on the stage. In 1940 she made her Broadway debut in Liliom. She later appeared in such critically acclaimed plays as Hedda Gabler (Paris, 1962), A Month in the Country (Great Britain, 1965), and Captain Brassbound’s Conversion (London, 1971). She won a Tony Award for her performance in Joan of Lorraine (1946–47), and her last Broadway appearance was in The Constant Wife (1975). She also starred in the television plays The Turn of the Screw (1959) and Hedda Gabler (1963).

In 1972, U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the verbal attack made on Bergman 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson.

Bergman was the president of the jury at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.[29]

In 1969, Bergman was eager to work in American screen again after many years hiatus. Producer Mike Frankovic later contacted her to offer her a role of a spinster, prim, nurse assistant to Walter Matthau in Cactus Flower, based on a successful Broadway play. The film also will be costarring a newcomer, Goldie Hawn as Matthau's doe-eyed, giddy girlfriend. The studio offered her $800,000 or about $5.3 million in today's value. Bergman hesitated to take the role after the long absence. When the film came out, it got rave reviews and Hawn later won an Oscar for her supporting role.[30]

Both Walter Matthau and newcomer Goldie Hawn were in awe of Bergman. They were worried whether they all can get along during the set. But Bergman's warmth and graciousness won them over. Later, Goldie Hawn said;

"I thought I'd be awfully intimidated by her, so intimidated I wouldn't be able to function. It wasn't that way at all. I didn't feel I had to compete. I just felt privileged to be in the same picture with her. She has a regal quality. It's too bad she isn't the queen of some country or something."

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.[6]^: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),[31] and French (her third language, learned in school). She acted in each of these languages at various times. Fellow actor Sir 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."[32] (This is from a Dorothy Parker quote which became a snowclone, "That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say 'No' 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 Sir Michael Redgrave in A Month in the Country (1965), Gielgud in The Constant Wife (1973) and Dame Wendy Hiller in Waters of the Moon (1977–1978).[33]

In 1978, Bergman played in Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten), by Ingmar Bergman (no relation), for which she received her 7th—and final—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.

Bergman in A Woman Called Golda

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".[6]^: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.[6]^: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.[6]^:296

Scene from Casablanca, with co-star Humphrey Bogart

In 1980, Bergman's autobiography, Ingrid Bergman: My Story, was written with the help of Alan Burgess. 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.

• Bergman, Ingrid; Burgess, Alan (1980). Ingrid Bergman: My Story. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-03299-7.
• Chandler, Charlotte (2007). Ingrid: Ingrid Bergman, A Personal Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9421-8.
• Leamer, Laurence (1986). As Time Goes By: The Life of Ingrid Bergman. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-015485-3.
• Dagrada, Elena (2008). Le Varianti Trasparenti. I Film con Ingrid Bergman di Roberto Rossellini. Milano: LED Edizioni Universitarie. ISBN 978-88-7916-410-8.
• Ziolkowska-Boehm, Aleksandra (2013). Ingrid Bergman prywatnie. Warsaw: Proszynski. ISBN 978-83-7839-518-8.
• Ziolkowska-Boehm, Aleksandra (2013). Ingrid Bergman and her American Relatives. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books. ISBN 978-0-7618-6150-8.