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Ingrid Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden, was born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 29, 1915 to a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman, and a German mother, Friedel Adler Bergman. SHe had a rough childhood. When she was onlt three years old, her mother died -- and the her father passed away when she was thirteen. She was then sent to live with an aunt, but that aunt died only 6 months later of heart complications. Afterwards she was raised by another aunt and uncle, who had five children. Can you imagine the trauma for a child?
When she was 17, Ingrid Bergman auditioned for and was accepted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. During her first summer break, she was hired at a Swedish film studio, which led to her leaving the Royal Dramatic Theater to work in films full time. Her first film role after leaving the Royal Dramatic Theater was a small part in 1935's Munkbrogreven.
On July 10, 1937, at the age of 21, she married a dentist, Petter Lindström (who would later become a neurosurgeon). On September 20, 1938, she gave birth to a daughter, Pia Lindström.
After a dozen films in Sweden (including En kvinnas ansikte which would later be remade as A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford) and one in Germany, Bergman was signed by Hollywood producer David O. Selznick to star in the 1939 English language remake of her 1936 Swedish language film, Intermezzo. It was an enormous success and Bergman became a star, described as "Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood". Some things that set her apart from other female stars in Hollywood at that time were that she did not change her name, her appearance was entirely natural with little to no makeup, and that she was one of the tallest leading ladies.
After completing one last film in Sweden and appearing in three moderately successful films in the United States, Bergman joined Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 classic film Casablanca, which remains her most recognizable role.
 That same year, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), which was also her first color film. The following year she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight (1944). She received a third consecutive nomination for Best Actress with her performance as a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). Later, she would receive another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), an independent film produced by Walter Wanger and initially released through RKO. Bergman had championed the role since her arrival in Hollywood, which is one of the reasons she had played it on the Broadway stage in Maxwell Anderson's Joan of Lorraine. Partly because of the scandal with Rossellini, the film, based on the Anderson play, was not a big hit, and received disastrous reviews. It was subsequently shorn of 45 minutes, and it was not until its restoration to full length in 1998 and its 2004 appearance on DVD that later audiences could see it as it was intended to be shown. She also starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949).
Between motion pictures, Bergman appeared in the stage plays Liliom, Anna Christie, and Joan of Lorraine. Furthermore, during a press conference in Washington, D.C. for the promotion of Joan of Lorraine, she protested segregation after seeing it first hand at the theater she was acting in. This led to a lot of publicity and some hate mail.
Ingrid Bergman also went to Alaska during World War II in order to entertain troops. Soon after the war ended, she also went to Europe for the same purpose, where she was able to see the devastation caused by the war. It was during this time that she began a relationship with photographer, Robert Capa.
In 1949, Bergman met Italian director Roberto Rossellini while making the film Stromboli (1950). During the making of this movie, she fell in love with him and became pregnant with a son, Roberto Ingmar Rossellini (born February 7, 1950).
 The pregnancy caused a huge scandal in the United States. It even led to her being denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Edwin C. Johnson, a Senator from Colorado, who referred to her as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil." In addition, there was a floor vote, which resulted in her being made a persona non grata. The scandal forced Ingrid Bergman to exile herself to Italy, leaving her husband and daughter in the United States. Her husband, Dr. Petter Lindström, eventually sued for desertion and waged a custody battle for Pia Lindström.
Ingrid Bergman married Roberto Rossellini on May 24, 1950. On June 18, 1952, she gave birth to twin daughters, Isabella Rossellini, who is a famous actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini. Over the next few years, she appeared in several Italian films for Rossellini, including Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (1954), a dramatic oratorio by Arthur Honegger about Joan of Arc. The Rossellini-Bergman marriage ended in divorce on November 7, 1957.
After separating from Rossellini she starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men, a romantic comedy where she played a Polish princess caught in political intrigue. Although the film wasn't a success, it has since come to be regarded as one of her best performances.
During her time in Italy, anger over her private life in the United States had continued unabated, with Ed Sullivan at one point polling his TV show audience as to whether she should be forgiven.
With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia, Bergman made her post-scandal triumphant return to the American screen and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. This award was accepted for her by her friend Cary Grant. Bergman would not make her first post-scandal public appearance in Hollywood until the 1958 Academy Awards, when she was the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Picture. After being introduced by Cary Grant and walking out on stage to present, she was given a standing ovation.
Bergman would continue to alternate between performances in American and European films for the rest of her career and also made occasional appearances in television dramas such as a 1959 production of The Turn of the Screw for Startime for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress. During this time, she also performed in several stage plays.
Ingrid then married the producer Lars Schmidt, a fellow Swede, on December 21, 1958, but this marriage ultimately led to divorce in 1975.
In 1972, Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the attack made on her 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson.
Bergman received her third Academy Award (and first for Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), but she publicly declared at the Academy Awards telecast that year that the award rightfully belonged to Italian actress Valentina Cortese for Day for Night by concluding her acceptance speech with "Please forgive me, Valentina. I didn't mean to."
 In 1978, she played in Ingmar Bergman's Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) for which she received her seventh Academy Award nomination and made her final performance on the big screen. In the film, Bergman plays a celebrity pianist who returns to Sweden to visit her neglected daughter, played by Liv Ullman. The film was shot in Norway. It is considered by many to be among Ingrid's best performances.
Bergman was honored posthumously with her second Emmy Award for Best Actress in 1982 for the television mini-series A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. It was her final acting role. One of her co-stars in this mini-series was Leonard Nimoy.
Bergman died in 1982 on her 67th birthday in London, England, following a long battle with breast cancer. Her body was cremated in Sweden. Most of her ashes were scattered in the sea with the remainder being interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm next to her parents. The most heartbreaking moment at her funeral was said to be when a single violin played the song "As Time Goes By", the theme from her most famous role, Casablanca. She was honored posthumously by Ingmar Bergman.
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