Born in Stockholm in 1915, Ingrid Bergman was working in Swedish and German films during the 1930s, when one of her Swedish films, 1936’s “Intermezzo,” caught the eye of powerful Hollywood producer David O. Selznick. He announced that he planned to remake “Intermezzo” in English and would bring Bergman to Hollywood to star. The only problem was that Bergman didn’t speak English, but she turned out to be a fast learner, and the combination of her work ethic and her radiant beauty put Bergman well on her way to becoming an authentic movie star.
Not only did Bergman become an audience favorite, but her acting skills earned her the respect of moviegoers and Hollywood producers alike. In the course of her four-decade film career, Bergman was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three for “Gaslight,” “Anastasia” and “Murder on the Orient Express”. She is one of only six actors in history ever to manage that feat of three or more acting victories. In addition, she was also nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards for her film work, also winning three. Other classics in her career have included the legendary “Casablanca,” “Notorious” and “Spellbound.”
Let’s take a photo gallery tour and rank her 15 greatest films from worst to best.
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15. SARATOGA TRUNK (1945)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sam Wood. Writer: Casey Robinson, from the Edna Ferber novel. Starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson.
Based on the Edna Ferber novel, “Saratoga Trunk” starred Bergman as Clio, the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic Creole father and a light-skinned Creole mother who, after living in Paris, return to New Orleans and team up with a Texas gambler (Gary Cooper) to seek justice for her mistreatment at the hands of her father’s family. “Saratoga Trunk” was Warner Bros.’ biggest box-office hit in 1945, and somehow, despite the ludicrousness of casting a Swedish actress in the role of a Creole outcast, Bergman’s skill somehow made the whole thing work.
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14. INTERMEZZO: A LOVE STORY (1939)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Gregory Ratoff. Writer: George O’Neil. Starring Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best.
The film that started it all for Bergman in America. With “Gone With the Wind” co-star Leslie Howard as her leading man, Bergman simply lit up the screen as Anna Hoffman, who is the piano teacher to the daughter of famed virtuoso violinist Holger Brandt (Howard). Upon hearing Anna play, Holger insists that she be his accompanist on his upcoming concert tour. While traveling together in such close quarters, one thing leads to another, and Anna begins a torrid affair with Holger. When the affair becomes public Holger’s wife Margit demands a divorce, and Anna must decide if staying with Holger is worth the toll on his family. As young as she is, Bergman is an absolute revelation here.
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13. STROMBOLI (1950)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Roberto Rossellini. Writers: Sergio Amidei, Gian Paolo Callegari, Art Cohn, Renzo Cezana. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Mario Vitale.
Although critical reaction to Rossellini’s film was negative at the time, “Stromboli” has since grown in reputation to be considered a classic of Italian neo-realism. And, from a film history perspective, it’s the film where Bergman and Rossellini began their scandalous love affair which resulted in a 7-year marriage. Bergman plays an Lithuanian emigre who marries an Italian fisherman (Mario Vitale) who brings her back to his volcanic island of Stromboli where she must fight to earn the respect of the disapproving island dwellers.
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12. THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S (1945)
Image Credit: RKO/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Leo McCarey. Writer: Dudley Nichols. Starring Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers, William Gargan.
Every Christmas, my mom and dad gathered the family around to watch the umpteenth rerun of Leo McCarey’s “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” the semi-sequel to “Going My Way,” probably in hopes that the film’s religiosity would somehow sink into us. (Hint: It didn’t.) But Catholicism aside, this is an emotionally potent film, thanks in large part to Bing Crosby (reprising his earlier Oscar-winning role of Fr. Chuck O’Malley) and Bergman, whose hard-nosed Sister Mary Benedict goes head-to-head with the good padre. For her performance as Sister Mary Benedict, Bergman won her second Golden Globe Award and received her third Oscar nomination.
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11. FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sam Wood. Writer: Dudley Nichols, from the Ernest Hemingway novel. Starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou.
Bergman earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance as Maria, a young guerrilla fighter who meets Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper), an American volunteer in Spain fighting the Franco forces during the Spanish Civil War. Readers around the world loved this story by Ernest Hemingway, who is said to have personally selected Bergman and Cooper for their roles, and Bergman’s performance in particular did not let him down.
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10. CACTUS FLOWER (1969)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: Gene Saks. Writer: I.A.L. Diamond, based on the play by Abe Burrows. Starring Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman, Goldie Hawn.
One of Bergman’s most commercial films (“Cactus Flower” was the eighth highest-grossing film of 1969), Gene Saks’ film is a rare comedy for the actress in which she plays Miss Dickinson, the loyal nurse to womanizing dentist Dr. Julian Winston (Walter Matthau). His girlfriend Toni Simmons (Goldie Hawn, in her Oscar-winning performance) has attempted suicide because a lack of a marriage proposal from Dr. Winston, who claims he’s married. He finally proposes, but that means he needs a “wife” to divorce. Enter Miss Dickinson. For her performance as Miss Dickinson, Bergman received her sixth Golden Globe nomination.
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9. INDISCREET (1958)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Stanley Donen. Writer: Norman Krasna, based on his play “Kind Sir.” Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Cecil Parker.
Bergman reunited with her “Notorious” co-star Cary Grant in this Stanley Donen romance, earning her fifth Golden Globe nomination as Anna, an actress who has abandoned all hope of finding love when she meets Philip, an economist who claims that he can’t commit to her because he’s married. He’s actually single, and when Anna finds out, she sets out to get revenge. The set-up is clever and bears a striking resemblance to the plot of her 1969 hit, “Cactus Flower.”
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8. JOAN OF ARC (1948)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Victor Fleming. Writers: Maxwell Anderson, Andrew Solt. Starring Ingrid Bergman, José Ferrer, George Coulouris.
“Joan of Arc” was a passion project for Bergman. By 1948, she had amassed enough clout in the industry to realize her dream projects, but making “Joan of Arc” was still a tough road for Bergman, and the film was finally made not by a major studio but by an independent company. While the reviews of the film at the time were largely positive, the reviews that Bergman received for her performance as the Maid of Orleans were glowing, resulting in her fourth Oscar nomination as Best Actress.
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7. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sidney Lumet. Writer: Paul Dehn, based on the Agatha Christie novel. Starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery.
Sidney Lumet’s film version of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit gathered a galaxy of stars playing passengers on board a train headed for England when a murder occurs, and every one of the first class passengers are suspects. Lumet offered Bergman the flashy role of suspect Princess Dragomiroff, but she asked to play the much smaller role of missionary Greta Ohlsson. Bergman clearly knew what the meaty part was, and, as a result, Bergman won her third Academy Award and her first in the supporting category.
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6. SPELLBOUND (1945)
Image Credit: Selznick/United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Writers: Angus MacPhail, Ben Hecht. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Leo G. Carroll.
“Spellbound” was Bergman’s second film under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock and one that was much more psychologically intense than “Notorious.” Set at a mental hospital, Dr. Constance Petersen (Bergman), a psychoanalyst thought by many on the staff to be an ice princess, is surprised when the hospital’s director (Leo G. Carroll) is forced into retirement and replaced by the much younger Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). Something about the new director doesn’t feel right to Dr. Petersen, and through snooping, she discovers that Dr. Edwardes is not whom he claims to be.
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5. AUTUMN SONATA (1978)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Ingmar Bergman. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, Lena Nyman.
Bergman’s final screen appearance proved to be one of her most acclaimed. In Ingmar Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata,” Bergman returned to her Swedish-language roots for this family drama in which she plays Charlotte, a renowned pianist who is invited by her housewife daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann) to return to her village in hopes of a reconciliation, which proves to be easier said than done. For her performance as Charlotte, Bergman was nominated for her seventh Academy Award and her seventh Golden Globe Award.
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4. ANASTASIA (1956)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/REX/Shutterstock Director: Anatole Litvak. Writer: Arthur Laurents. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes.
In Anatole Litvak’s historical drama, Bergman won her second Best Actress Academy Award as Anna, an amnesiac who bears a striking resemblance to Russia’s Grand Duchess Anastasia, who was widely rumored to have survived the massacre of her royal family during the Russian Revolution. Anna soon becomes a pawn in an extortion scheme by a renegade Russian general (Yul Brynner) to use Anna’s resemblance to claim Anastasia’s £10 million inheritance. But it’s up to Anna to sell it. In addition to her Oscar, Bergman also won her third Golden Globe Award as Best Actress.
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3. GASLIGHT (1944)
Image Credit: MGM/REX/Shutterstock Director: George Cukor. Writers: John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Balderston. Starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury.
Bergman won her first Best Actress Academy Award as Paula Alquist, who, as a young girl, witnessed the murder of her aunt. Now grown up, she is whisked off her feet by Charles Anton (Charles Boyer), who convinces her to leave her friends behind and live with him in London. Slowly but surely, the manipulative Charles gaslights Paula, persuading her that the events and evidence she is clearly seeing aren’t really happening, thus having her question her own sanity and her own memories of the murder. In addition, for her performance as Paula, Bergman won her first Golden Globe Award as Best Actress.
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2. NOTORIOUS (1946)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Writer: Ben Hecht. Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains.
Throughout her career, Bergman was showered with critical recognition and awards, but I would argue that her two best films — at least the two that have aged the strongest — received no critical awards for her at all. The first is “Notorious,” to my mind one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films and a very mature work by the master, in which he treated a love story seriously and not just an adjunct to the suspense plot. Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, daughter of a Nazi spy, who is engaged by agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a Nazi ring in Brazil. The chemistry between Grant and Bergman truly sizzles.
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1. CASABLANCA (1942)
Image Credit: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group/REX/Shutterstock Director: Michael Curtiz. Writers: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
“Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake. Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.'” With those words, Ingrid Bergman became a part of film history with her indelible performance as Ilsa Lund, the wife of Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), who suddenly appears in the Casablanca cafe and gambling den of American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Ilsa’s former lover and a man for whom she still carries a torch. Rick and Ilsa’s romance is one of the great love stories, and Bogart & Bergman bring it to life so skillfully that “Casablanca” remains a beloved American classic to this day.
