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Academy Award winning actress Ingrid Bergman was born on August 29, 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden and died on the same date in 1982. Educated at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School in Stockholm, she made her film debut in Branningar (1935). Bergman established herself as one of Sweden’s leading stars during the middle 1930s. American producer, David O. Selznick was so impressed with her talent that he brought her to Hollywood. The Hollywood version of Intermezzo was a great success and Bergman followed this with other popular films such as Adam had Four Sons (1941), Rage in Heaven (1941), Casablanca (1942), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946) and Joan of Arc (1948). In August, 1949, Bergman became the center of a major scandal when it was revealed by her husband, that she had abandoned their ten year old daughter, to live with Italian film director, Roberto Rossellini. Politicians became involved in the case and one senator, Edwin Johnson of Colorado, denounced her behavior as “an assault upon the institution of marriage” and described her as a “powerful influence of evil.” Bergman was unable to work in Hollywood for seven years but made a triumphant return in Anastasia (1956) for which she won an Academy Award. Other successes were to follow that included Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Ingrid Bergman died on August 29, 1982 from breast cancer in London. Most of her cremated remains were scattered at sea off the west coast of Sweden and the rest were placed next to her parents’ ashes at the Northern Cemetery, Stockholm, Sweden.
