Happy Birthday, Ingrid Bergman, Actress and Star of "Casablanca"

Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 29, 1915, Her mother died when she was a toddler. Bergman’s father owned a photography shop and used a motion picture camera to film his little daughter. He died when Bergman was 12; she was then cared for by an aunt, who also died soon after, and the young girl was passed on to an uncle. In a 1943 New York Times interview, she said that her relatives discouraged her from being an actress but she persisted, memorizing poetry in her room. She also appeared in a high school plays and as an extra in a film. She was able to pursue her own path after graduation, and used her inheritance to pay tuition at Royal Dramatic Theater School in Stockholm.

Bergman left the school a year later, after she was cast in a small role in a Swedish film. In 1936, she starred in “Intermezzo,” the film that sealed her position as a star in Sweden and also launched her Hollywood career. American producer David O. Selznick remade the Swedish hit in 1939, which starred Bergman alongside Leslie Howard.

After her arrival in Hollywood, Bergman worked alongside the town’s A-list names, such as Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby and director Alfred Hitchcock. Her many admirers counted Bergman’s natural beauty and unassuming disposition among her best qualities. But she felt out of place in Hollywood.

She was underwhelmed by the film that made her famous, 1942’s “Casablanca,” not considering her role of great import. Critic Roger Ebert sang the movie’s praises in a 1996 review, saying that the early scenes “have the power to move me … as few scenes ever have.” He notes that her emotionally authentic performance might have been helped by the fact that she didn’t know the ending until it was filmed. (The studio had considered an ending in which Ilsa didn’t get on the plane, and remained with Rick.)

Regardless of her own feelings about the role, “Casablanca” made Bergman a true Hollywood star, even if she didn’t act like one. She was known to have once waited in line for one of her own films without being recognized.

Bergman fell from grace (at least in the eyes of American audiences) during the 1950 filming of “Stromboli.” She embarked on an affair with the movie’s director, Roberto Rossellini, and became pregnant by him while still married to her previous husband, Dr. Petter Lindström. The public made its opinion clear; the film was banned in some places and was ultimately a flop at the box office. She continued to make films in Europe, and eventually returned in triumph in 1956 to Hollywood to star in “Anastasia.”

Berman collected a host of awards during her career, including two Best Actress Oscars for 1944’s “Gaslight” and 1956’s “Anastasia. In 1974, her role in “Murder on the Orient Express” made her the first actress to win a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award after already winning two Best Actress Oscars.

Bergman made several more films in the 1960s and 70s, such as “Cactus Flower” and Ingmar Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata.” Even after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she kept working. Her last role as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 1982 TV miniseries “A Woman Called Golda” netted her an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

Her daughter Pia Lindström is an award-winning newscaster and daughter Isabella Rossellini an award-winning film actress. Ingrid Bergman died on her own birthday at age 67, after hosting a party for friends earlier in the day. She is ranked the fourth greatest female film star of all time by the American Film Institute.