69 Fun Facts About Ingrid Bergman

In which city was Ingrid Bergman born in 1915?

Stockholm is also where she won a place at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school, only to leave after a single year because a film studio had hired her.

After whom was Ingrid Bergman named?

A Swedish princess, five-year-old Ingrid, gave Bergman her name. The princess grew up to marry Denmark's crown prince and was Queen of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

Which character did Bergman play opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca?

Ilsa Lund's great romance was pure acting: off the set the two stars hardly spoke, and Bergman later said she had kissed Bogart but never knew him.

Which actress won more acting Oscars than Bergman's three?

Katharine Hepburn won four, all for Best Actress, yet her only appearance at the ceremony came in 1974, when she turned up to present an award to someone else.

Which director made three films with Bergman: Spellbound, Notorious and Under Capricorn?

Alfred Hitchcock got round the censors' limit on long screen kisses in Notorious by having his two stars break off every few seconds, stretching one embrace to some two and a half minutes.

Bergman's American debut was the 1939 English-language remake of which of her own Swedish films?

Intermezzo was meant to be a one-off: she agreed to a single Hollywood film and went home to Sweden afterwards, until its success persuaded her to come back.

Which producer brought Bergman to Hollywood in 1939?

David O. Selznick planned a glamour makeover and a new name for her; she threatened to take the next train home, and he ended up selling her as Hollywood's first 'natural' actress.

Which of Bergman's features did her first Hollywood producer complain were too thick?

Her eyebrows went unplucked: she also refused to cap her teeth or change her name, and told him that if he insisted she would take the next train back home.

What did Bergman joke she had 'perhaps' been as a girl, thanks to her doting father?

Scandinavia's most photographed child had a father who ran a camera shop: he recorded her birthdays and shot her constantly, often in costume, and she loved dressing up and acting for his lens.

Which actor starred opposite Bergman in both For Whom the Bell Tolls and Saratoga Trunk?

Gary Cooper's second film with her sat on the shelf: Saratoga Trunk was finished in 1943 and shown to troops overseas, but American cinemas did not get it until the war was over.

In which Swedish film, remade by MGM with Joan Crawford, did Bergman lead a blackmail gang?

A Woman's Face was a part she fought for: she agreed to make another film she disliked only if she could first play this bitter, burn-scarred criminal, with a brace inside her cheek to distort it.

In which 1941 film did Bergman beg to play the barmaid Ivy instead of the hero's fiancée?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had her down for the doctor's sweet fiancée. She pleaded for the barmaid instead because, as she later said, she could not go on playing good and beautiful girls all her life.

What nickname, pairing a soap brand with a film star, was Bergman given in her early Hollywood years?

The Palmolive Garbo was a label for a Swedish newcomer who looked freshly scrubbed: she refused Hollywood's layers of make-up and went before the cameras almost bare-faced.

Which novelist insisted that Bergman, and no one else, should play the heroine Maria in the film of his book?

Ernest Hemingway got his wish only at the second attempt: the studio first cast Vera Zorina as Maria, then replaced her with Bergman two weeks into shooting.

For which 1944 film did Bergman win her first Academy Award?

Gaslight and the play behind it gave English a word: a husband persuades his wife she is imagining the dimming lamps, which is why making someone doubt their own sanity is now called gaslighting.

Who directed Bergman's first Oscar-winning role, in the 1944 film that introduced Angela Lansbury?

George Cukor cast the film's maid on a writer's word: one of its screenwriters recommended the 17-year-old daughter of an émigré actress, and Angela Lansbury made her screen debut in the part.

Bergman played a nun opposite Bing Crosby in which film, the biggest box office hit of 1945?

The Bells of St. Mary's became the biggest hit in RKO's history. Bergman had her own reason to love it: under a nun's habit, she wrote, only her face showed, so she could eat ice cream forever.

Which artist was hired to design the dream sequence in Spellbound?

Salvador Dali was the director's choice: he wanted the dream shown with hard-edged clarity rather than the usual blurred haze. The producer later cut much of what was shot.

In Notorious, Bergman's Alicia Huberman infiltrates a group of German emigres hiding in which city?

Rio de Janeiro is where the film's famous kiss unfolds, on a balcony: to get round the censors' limit on long kisses, the two stars break off every few seconds for some two and a half minutes.

Which prop from Notorious did Bergman hand to its director at his 1979 AFI tribute?

The wine cellar key had been kept by her co-star when filming ended; he later gave it to her for luck, and she passed it on to the director with the same wish.

For which Maxwell Anderson play did Bergman win the Tony Award for Best Actress?

Joan of Lorraine was such a hit that Bergman formed her own company with a producer and a director to film the saint's life, released in 1948 as Joan of Arc.

What did Ingrid Bergman publicly protest in Washington in 1946, while starring in a play there?

Racial segregation was the rule at Lisner Auditorium, where her play was running, and she said so to the newspapers. The play's cast signed a protest against the whites-only policy.

In her famous fan letter to director Roberto Rossellini, Bergman said the only Italian she knew was what?

Ti amo means 'I love you'. She offered herself as a Swedish actress ready to come and make a film with him; the film was Stromboli, and during the shoot the two fell in love.

On the floor of which body was Bergman denounced in 1950 as "a powerful influence for evil"?

The United States Senate heard Colorado's Edwin C. Johnson attack her in March 1950. In 1972 another senator, Charles Percy, entered an apology for it into the Congressional Record.

Which TV host flew to Europe in 1956 to film Bergman for his show, only for the appearance never to air?

Ed Sullivan filmed her on the set of her comeback picture, but she never appeared on his programme. His Sunday-night rival Steve Allen had her on instead, and defended the booking when critical mail arrived.

Which tycoon owned RKO when it backed Stromboli?

Howard Hughes had taken control of the studio in 1948. After another Hollywood producer turned the film down, Bergman rang Hughes herself and won his backing.

In Under Capricorn (1949), Bergman plays an alcoholic aristocrat living in which British colonial territory in 1831?

Australia is the setting, and the title nods to the Tropic of Capricorn, which crosses it. Filmed in unbroken takes of up to ten minutes, it was one of her last failures before she left Hollywood.

Which 1956 film marked Bergman's return to Hollywood studio work and won her a second Oscar?

Anastasia was a gamble: 20th Century-Fox cast her after seven years away from American screens, when she was still seen as a box-office risk. It was shot in Europe, not Hollywood.

Who played the scheming General Bounine opposite Bergman in her 1956 comeback film?

Yul Brynner shared the triumph: at the 1957 Oscars he was named Best Actor for The King and I on the same night that Bergman won Best Actress for this film.

Which former co-star accepted Bergman's second Best Actress Oscar on her behalf in 1957?

Cary Grant collected the statuette in her absence. Two years later she walked on to the Oscar stage herself as a presenter, to applause said to be louder than for any winner that night.

Bergman won her first Emmy for a 1959 TV adaptation of which Henry James novella?

The Turn of the Screw was her first television role anywhere. Before the cameras rolled, the show's makers flew out to Europe to meet her.

In Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Ingrid Bergman turned down Princess Dragomiroff to play which smaller part?

Greta Ohlsson, a timid Swedish missionary, has one big scene. Because the part was so small, Sidney Lumet filmed it as a single take of almost five minutes, and it won her a third Oscar.

What did Bergman tell the audience on accepting her third Oscar?

A rival deserved it: on stage she praised Valentina Cortese's performance in Day for Night, called herself her rival and asked Cortese to forgive her for winning.

Which Swedish director made Autumn Sonata (1978), Ingrid Bergman's final cinema film?

Ingmar Bergman had been her target for years: when they met at a film festival, she slipped a note into his pocket reminding him of an old promise that they would make a film together.

Who played Bergman's neglected daughter Eva in Autumn Sonata?

Liv Ullmann played Eva in a studio outside Oslo: the Swedish-language film was shot in Norway because its director had left Sweden after a battle with the tax authorities.

Which stateswoman did Bergman play in her final role, which won her a posthumous Emmy?

Golda Meir was a role she played in constant pain after cancer surgery: each night her swollen arm was propped up in traction to bring the swelling down for the next day's filming.

Which song does Bergman's character ask Sam to play in Casablanca?

As Time Goes By was nearly dropped: the composer wanted to swap in a tune of his own, but Bergman had already cut her hair short for her next film, so the scenes could not be reshot.

Which of Bergman's children became an actress and Lancome model, famous for Blue Velvet?

Isabella Rossellini was dropped by Lancôme in 1996, at 43, for being 'too old'. Twenty years later the brand's first female boss hired her back.

In The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Bergman plays a British missionary who leads orphans to safety in which country?

China never saw the cameras: the film was shot entirely in North Wales and England, with Snowdonia standing in for its mountains. The real missionary, Gladys Aylward, was mortified by its liberties.

In which country were Bergman and Roberto Rossellini married by proxy in 1950, months after its courts granted her divorce?

Mexico had ended her first marriage in a court in Ciudad Juárez, and the wedding was held there with neither bride nor groom present. It was later annulled, on the ground that by Swedish law she had still been married.

Which war photographer's romance with Bergman reportedly inspired the film Rear Window?

Robert Capa won her over in Paris in 1945 with a joke: he and a friend wrote that they could afford either flowers or dinner for her, had taken a vote, and dinner had won by a close margin.

On what date did Bergman die in 1982?

Her 67th birthday, 29 August 1982, came eight years into her cancer. Friends and her former husband Lars Schmidt drank a last toast to her at her London flat hours before she died.

In The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which song do the orphans sing as Bergman leads them to safety?

This Old Man was arranged for the film as 'The Children's Marching Song', and the tune promptly became a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic.

At the end of Casablanca, Bergman's character boards a plane bound for which neutral capital?

Lisbon was wartime Europe's way out: neutral Portugal let refugees reach its port and sail on to the Americas, which is why the film's exiles wait in Casablanca for a visa to get there.

Which folk singer wrote the 1950 lyric "Ingrid Bergman", later recorded by Billy Bragg and Wilco?

Woody Guthrie wrote only the words, in 1950, and never recorded them. His daughter Nora later opened his archive of unrecorded lyrics to Billy Bragg, who wrote the tune in 1996.

What was named "Ingrid Bergman" in her honour in 1984?

A hybrid tea rose, deep red and bred in Denmark, took her name two years after her death. In 2000 the world's rose societies voted it into their Hall of Fame as the World's Favourite Rose.

Which Swedish actress studied Notorious for her Mission: Impossible role, a spy named after Bergman's Casablanca character?

Rebecca Ferguson was sent the film on DVD by her co-star Tom Cruise as preparation. The film-makers had already noticed how much she resembled Bergman.

What substance is the secret at the heart of Notorious, hidden by the plotters Bergman spies on?

Uranium ore was a daring choice: it went into the script months before the first atomic bomb was tested, and the director later said the FBI had him watched because of it.

Where did Bergman tour over Christmas 1943, entertaining US troops at remote bases?

Alaska in midwinter meant missing Christmas at home with her family. On the tour she befriended the Army's commander there, General Simon Bolivar Buckner, later killed on Okinawa.

Which prime minister did Bergman meet in London to get permission for Rossellini to leave India in 1957?

Jawaharlal Nehru heard her out at his sister's London residence. She was pleading for a husband whose affair with a married Indian screenwriter had caused the trouble, and he was soon let out with his film.

Who directed Casablanca?

Michael Curtiz was the second choice: the producer first sent the play to William Wyler, who never took it up, then turned to Curtiz, who won the Best Director Oscar for it.

Which actor played Victor Laszlo, the husband of Bergman's character, in Casablanca?

Paul Henreid owed a real debt to the film's Nazi villain: when wartime Britain classed him as an enemy alien, Conrad Veidt, who plays Major Strasser, spoke up for him and kept him out of internment.

Bergman made her Broadway debut in Liliom, the play about a fairground barker that became which Rodgers and Hammerstein musical?

Carousel got a yes where Puccini had got a no: the play's author refused to let the composer make it an opera, reputedly so it would be remembered as his own, then let Broadway set it to music.

Bergman signed a three-picture deal with which German studio, making only The Four Companions (1938)?

UFA planned to launch her as a star in Germany, with Charlotte Corday lined up as her next role. Instead she went home to have her baby, and Hollywood soon claimed her.

Which actor played the amnesiac whom Bergman's character treats and falls for in Spellbound?

Gregory Peck plays an impostor who cannot remember his own name. The film's producer lent the production his own analyst as technical adviser, and she is credited on screen.

Which French director wrote Elena and Her Men (1956) for Bergman, casting her as a Polish princess?

Jean Renoir had refused to cast her at her Hollywood peak: she was too big a star, he said, but he would be there with a net when she fell. When her Italian films failed, he came back with this comedy.

Which director of Hollywood musicals made the 1958 romantic comedy Indiscreet with Bergman?

Stanley Donen slipped a bedroom scene past the censors with a split screen: the lovers talk by phone from beds in Paris and London, yet appear to be lying side by side.

What is the profession of Charlotte, Bergman's character in Autumn Sonata?

Concert pianist. The hands on the keys are not Bergman's: they belong to Käbi Laretei, a real concert pianist and the director's former wife, who played the Chopin heard in the film.

Bergman was president of the jury at which film festival in 1973?

Cannes put her at odds with her hosts: she openly regretted that France had entered La Grande Bouffe and The Mother and the Whore, which she called the most sordid and vulgar films of the festival.

Which English stage star directed Bergman's West End hit The Constant Wife in 1973?

John Gielgud staged the Maugham comedy at the Albery Theatre. During the run Bergman found a lump in her breast, but she refused to abandon the play for treatment.

Which shorter co-star walked on hidden ramps to match Bergman's height in their scenes together?

Claude Rains. Bergman stood 5 ft 9 in, a few inches taller than he was, so in Notorious he also wore lifts in his shoes, and he later admitted that the request had dented his pride.

Which children's classic lay open at Bergman's bedside when she died in London in 1982?

The Little Prince lay at her bedside, open at a page near the end. Saint-Exupéry's tale closes with the prince comforting his friend before he leaves Earth for his own planet.

Bergman's memoir co-writer Alan Burgess wrote the book behind which of her films?

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness came from Burgess's The Small Woman, about missionary Gladys Aylward, a small Londoner played on screen by the tall Swedish star.

Which Bergman film with George Sanders flopped on release but went on to inspire the French New Wave?

Journey to Italy follows an English couple whose marriage frays on a trip to Naples. Young Cahiers du Cinéma critics such as Godard and Truffaut championed it, then made New Wave films of their own.

Which TV comedy star won an Oscar playing opposite Bergman and Walter Matthau in a 1969 film?

Goldie Hawn. Best known then for the TV sketch show Laugh-In, she was away filming in London on Oscar night, so Raquel Welch collected the award for her.

In which 1969 comedy did Bergman play a nurse secretly in love with her boss, played by Walter Matthau?

Cactus Flower. Matthau's bachelor has told his girlfriend that he is married, so he asks his prim nurse to pose as the wife, and ends up falling for her instead.

In which film did Bergman play an American widow who falls for a Yugoslav partisan played by Omar Sharif?

The Yellow Rolls-Royce follows one car from owner to owner. Bergman's widow buys it in Trieste, smuggles the partisan across the border in it, then ferries villagers to safety.

The Visit (1964), starring Bergman and Anthony Quinn, was based on a play by which Swiss dramatist?

Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play sends a hugely rich woman back to her hometown, where she offers the residents a fortune to kill the man who once betrayed her. Bergman played the avenger.

Bergman starred opposite Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson in a BBC and CBS television film of which Ibsen play?

Hedda Gabler. Her husband, producer Lars Schmidt, set up the television film, and in the same year she took the role to the Paris stage.