Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman 29 August 1915 29 August 1982 was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films television movies and plays With a career spanning five decades she is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cinematic history According to the St James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture upon her arrival in the US Bergman quickly became the ideal of American womanhood and a contender for Hollywoods greatest leading actress David O Selznick once called her the most completely conscientious actress he had ever worked with In 1999 the American Film Institute recognised Bergman as the fourth greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema She won numerous accolades including three Academy Awards two Primetime Emmy Awards a Tony Award four Golden Globe Awards BAFTA Award and a Volpi Cup She is one of only four actresses to have received at least three acting Academy Awards only Katharine Hepburn has four Born in Stockholm to a Swedish father and a German mother Bergman began her acting career in Swedish and German films Her introduction to the US audience came in the Englishlanguage remake of Intermezzo 1939 Known for her naturally luminous beauty she starred in Casablanca 1942 as Ilsa Lund her most famous role opposite Humphrey Bogart Bergmans notable performances in the 1940s include the dramas For Whom the Bell Tolls 1943 Gaslight 1944 The Bells of St Marys 1945 and Joan of Arc 1948 all of which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress she won for Gaslight She made three films with Alfred Hitchcock Spellbound 1945 with Gregory Peck Notorious 1946 opposite Cary Grant and Under Capricorn 1949 alongside Joseph Cotten In 1950 she starred in Roberto Rossellinis Stromboli released after the revelation she was having an affair with Rossellini that and her pregnancy prior to their marriage created a scandal in the US that prompted her to remain in Europe for several years During this time she starred in Rossellinis Europa 51 and Journey to Italy 1954 now critically acclaimed the former of which won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress She had a successful return to working for a Hollywood studio in Anastasia 1956 winning her second Academy Award for Best Actress Soon after she costarred with Grant in the romance Indiscreet 1958 In 1969 she starred in the acclaimed and highly successful film Cactus Flower In later years Bergman won her third Academy Award this one for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Murder on the Orient Express 1974 In 1978 she starred in Ingmar Bergmans no relation Swedish Autumn Sonata receiving her sixth Best Actress nomination Bergman spoke five languages Swedish English German Italian and French and acted in each In her final role she portrayed the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the television miniseries A Woman Called Golda 1982 for which she posthumously won her second Emmy Award for Best Actress In 1974 Bergman discovered she was suffering from breast cancer but continued to work until shortly before her death on her sixtyseventh birthday