Her father was a Samuel Bergman from Sweden and a her mother was Friedel (Adler) Bergman from Germany. When she was three years of age, her mother died. Her father, who was an artist and photographer, died when she was thirteen.
She was named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden.
At the age of 17, Bergman entered an acting competition with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She won and as a result she received a scholarship to the state-sponsored Royal Dramatic Theatre School.
She was the protegee of Swedish director Gustaf Molander. In his film “Intermezzo” (1936), she played a young pianist who has an affair with a married man; the whiff of scandal that attended many of her screen roles was later to intrude into her personal life. She had already made around a dozen films in Sweden, but Intermezzo was the first in which she could realize her immense potential as an actress capable of both charm and intensity, and it brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick. Her Hollywood career was launched with a remake of Intermezzo in 1939.
Early in her career, when she did Swedish films, her nickname on set was "Betterlater" due to her saying after nearly every take, "I'll be better later."
While she was in Italy to make a film with director
Roberto Rossellini, they fell in love and she became pregnant. Both were already married, Bergman to a Swedish dentist with whom she had a daughter. The relationship caused a huge scandal in the United States and Bergman was no longer welcome here. She subsequently moved to Italy to marry Rossellini.
To prepare for her role of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the TV film A Woman Called Golda, Bergman traveled around Israel, interviewing those who had known her and studying old newsreels to master her mannerisms.
She could speak Swedish, German, English, Italian, and French fluently.
In the 1940s, Bergman took acting lessons from famed Russian coach Michael Chekhov.
She broke her foot at the beginning of the American run of "The Constant Wife" and played the next five weeks in a wheelchair.
Industrialist Howard Hughes once bought every available seat from New York to Los Angeles to be sure she would accept a ride in his private plane.
Former mother-in-law of
Martin Scorsese.
Has a type of rose named after her, called the Ingrid Bergman rose.
Swedes are very proud of Bergman. They even have "Ingrid Bergman Square" with a statue of the screen goddess looking out over the water to her former home. Her ashes were scattered over the sea nearby.
Received a fascinating 1939 telegram from the great
Greta Garbo reading, "I would like to see you when I am free, if you would be willing".
Cannes jury secretary Christiane Guespin was remembering all the different stars at the festival and she said the most impressive was Bergman back in 1973 when she was President of the jury. Guespin said, "Every night, when she arrived at the evening screenings, people would stand and give her an ovation and applause. Every single night. I have never seen that happen for anyone else".
Bergman died in 1982 on her 67th birthday in London, following a long battle with breast cancer. Her body was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, London and her ashes taken to Sweden, where most of her ashes 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 summers from 1958 to her death in 1982, and the rest placed next to her parents in Norra begravningsplatsen (Northern Cemetery), Stockholm, Sweden.
Roles turned down
Eve in "Interiors" (1978)
Princess Dragimiroff in "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974)
Zira in "Planet of the Apes" (1968)
Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker" (1962)
Varnia in "Spartacus" (1950)
Terry McKay in "An Affair to Remember" (1957)
Virginia Stuart Cunningham in "The Snake Pit" (1948)
Gay Keane in "The Paradine Case" (1947)
Katrin Holstrom in “The Farmer's Daughter” (1947)
Irish Mary Rafferty in "The Valley of Decision' (1945)
Beatrix Emery in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941)
Salary
Munkbrogreven (1935) SEK 1,000
Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) $20,000.00
Lux Radio Theater (1930's-1940's) $5,000 per performance
Rage in Heaven (1941) $34,000.00
Casablanca (1942) $25,000
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) $31,770.83
Gaslight (1944) $75,156.25
Arch of Triumph (1948) $175,000 + 25% of net profits
Joan of Arc (1948) $245,000
Stromboli (1950) $175,000.00 plus 40% of net profits
Anastasia (1956) $250,000
Indiscreet (1958) $75,000.00 + 10% of gross profits above $4,000,000
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) $275,000
Cactus Flower (1969) $800,000.00
Murder on the Orient Express (1974) $100,000.00
A Matter of Time (1976) $250,000
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