Ingrid Bergman had the most perfect movie career of all time.

Meryl has had a far more successful and longer career than Bergman and most others for that matter. Female or male.

And I say that as a Meryl hater.

r1 Meryl didn't see the heights of popularity that Ingrid saw. At no point in Meryl's career, she was the biggest box office draw. Nor does Meryl have anything in her filmography that comes anywhere to close to Casablanca.

Elizabeth Taylor and even bigger and with more lawful husbands.

r3 Elizabeth, the glamorous movie star had always overshadowed Elizabeth, the actress.

Actually, I agree.

Furthermore, name another actress Woody Guthrie wrote a song about?

"Ingrid Bergman, you're so perty You'd make any mountain quiver You'd make fire fly from the crater Ingrid Bergman"

If you’re known for having a major comeback after a long period where studios won’t hire you, you definitely didn’t have a perfect movie career.

No one has a perfect movie career, except John Cazale (maybe James Dean, as well), but among stars who had long careers,Hepburn has a better claim, partially because she was so selective and her classics were evenly spaced. You can make a legitimate case that her best performance was in any of four consecutive decades. Bergman had a fantastic career in the 1940s, then had periodic comebacks. Sure, she had Anastasia in 1956, but what else until her third Oscar? The Inn of the Sixth Happiness? Being upstaged in Cactus Flower?

Probably the best example of a perfect career that lasted decades is Paul Newman. Once he got past The Silver Chalice, there really wasn’t a long stretch of time when he couldn’t claim a relatively recent success. And none of his final roles are embarrassing. Where the Money Is wasn’t The Hustler, but it wasn’t exactly Grace Quigley, either.

Paul Newman

I don't have a hand in this specific argument, but I will say I've always loved her, and her beautiful, elegant, earthy appearance and demeanor (all of the best parts of her astrological sun sign of Virgo).

I have fallen asleep to Bergman interviews. I find her to be incredibly calming, but fascinating as an artist and as an individual.

She gave us Isabella Rossellini.

Bump

Was Garbo jealous of her? I don't think it was a coincidence she retired shortly after Bergman arrived to Hollywood.

Ingrid was gorgeous, and even if her career was tainted by scandal, she still had an enviable career spanning 6 decades! She was also the first actor to win 3 Oscars, and she even won an Emmy after her death.

[quote] She was also the first actor to win 3 Oscars,

WRONG!

Ingrid had a baby out of wedlock (I think by a director) and she was given the heave ho from Hollywood. She didn't make a movie for about 5 or 6 years which interrupted her 'perfect' movie career.

Loved her. NOTORIOUS and INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS are two of my favorite films by her. I didn't care for GASLIGHT and don't think she should have gotten the Oscar for it, but I love her in just about everything else.

Ingrid Bergman was okay but she really didn't hold a spell for me. And the most perfect movie career of all time? I don't think so.

Then she fell on Rossellini's dick and down she went.

I agree, R16. I like her movies and find her to be a great actress, but was never a devotee of hers.

Joan Crawford.

Ingrid was a phenomenal actress who never gave a bad performance. Must-see films of hers include:

A Woman's Face (1938)

Intermezzo (1939)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Casablanca (1942)

Gaslight (1944)

Spellbound (1945)

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

Notorious (1946)

Joan of Arc (1948)

Stromboli (1950)

Europe '51 (1952)

Journey to Italy (1954)

Anastasia (1956)

Goodbye Again (1961)

The Visit (1964)

Cactus Flower (1969)

A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Autumn Sonata (1978)

SHE HAD HUGE FEET .

My IB fav is Autumn Sonata. To me, the movie is perfection.

Yeah, her career really suffered after her fall from grace. It's a shame that following her affair with Roberto Rossellini she went on to win 2 more Oscars, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, 5 Bambis, a César, and 2 Emmys. To make matters worse, by the time Ingrid died her daughter was forced to pay for the sins of her parents by becoming a supermodel with numerous Vogue covers and a lucrative cosmetics contract. So sad!

"Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words" is an interesting biopic featuring Ingrid's own home movies, letters, her family's interviews, etc. It's beautifully narrated in Swedish by Alicia Vikander.

I enjoyed the 'lighter' movies she did a bit more than the heavies. Indiscreet, with Cary Grant (sigh) and Cactus Flower are joys to watch.

I've meant to get that Bergman/Rossellini box set from Criterion for some time, and it looks like that documentary is included. Too bad that I missed out on Barnes and Noble's 50% off sale. Damn!

I LOVE Cactus Flower, she really should've done more comedies.

The Visit is criminally underrated, it's one of my favorites. It's probably the best and most complex role she played.

[quote]Meryl has had a far more successful and longer career than Bergman

Also, Meryl isn't a WHORE.

The affair with Rosselini was scandalous at the time, and wrecked her career in Hollywood for a time. But it gave her some experience in Italian film's most interesting period, so maybe it was a wash.

During her exodus from Hollywood, which parts did she miss out on?

She is largely forgotten.

R20, Ingrid only did the Swedish version of "A Woman's Face:" The Hollywood version starred Miss Crawford, one of her better roles.

r33 Which is sad because she needs to be celebrated as one of the greatest ever.

bump

Ingrid was in one of the worst movies of all time "A Matter Of Time", also starring Liza Minelli and directed by Vincent Minelli, his last film. He shouldn't have bothered. It was horrid.

[quote]Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo's favourite haunts:

I'm a big Ingrid Bergman fan -and I will fight anyone who says she was upstaged in Cactus Flower!

But, in the interest of discussion, I'll put forward Doris Day as having the most perfect movie career of all time. Nonstop in Hollywood for a quarter century, with the title of reigning box office draw near the end of her film career. She left on top, and didn't make cameos or returns. Her vocals are still credited in more than a dozen films since her passing. Mentioned in songs by Elton John, The Beatles, Wham!, Billy Joel, Reunion, and Underworld -not to mention Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim! And who else can claim to have turned down the roles of both Mrs. Robinson and Maria von Trapp? Twelve Golden Globe nominations with five wins. Ten Laurel nominations with ten wins. Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. And, in her all-American way, just a beautiful as Ingrid.

r39 Yeah but her filmography is quite lackluster with Pillow Talk being her most famous movie.

Doris was great in The Man Who Knew Too Much.

ALICIA RHETT had the most perfect movie career of all time. She was offered 1 movie role, played it perfectly, decided that Hollywood stunk, and retired from acting in favor of more interesting things. As of 2019, her little independant movie has grossed over 3 706 000 000 $ and was #1 dvd/blueray in 2020.

I love Doris in Love Me or Leave Me. It's a surprisingly dark film, too. Midnight Lace is also very good, I love her performance in it.

[quote]Yeah, her career really suffered after her fall from grace. It's a shame that following her affair with Roberto Rossellini she went on to win 2 more Oscars, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, 5 Bambis, a César, and 2 Emmys. To make matters worse, by the time Ingrid died her daughter was forced to pay for the sins of her parents by becoming a supermodel with numerous Vogue covers and a lucrative cosmetics contract. So sad!

Whores can win awards.

R40 is right. Doris Day would be better remembered had she played Maria Von Trapp or Mrs, Robinson. Turning down roles in two of the most popular movies of all time really shouldn’t be a point in her favor, particularly when you look at the films she did make in the 1960s.

Someone should have told Dell that she turned down Maria, r39.

[quote] even if her career was tainted by scandal, she still had an enviable career spanning 6 decades!

And one of her best performances was towards the end of career--Autumn Sonata. I don't really like Ingmar Bergman movies at all but I think she was excellent as the mother who is superior to her mediocre daughter lol.

Doris Day is often underestimated as an actress -probably due to her wonderful singing. But she more than held her own opposite James Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much (even Hitchcock approved of her), and Cagney in Love Me Or Leave Me. She was the queen of the rom com -practically inventing the genre.

Turning down those roles certainly worked in those movies' favors, r45. I assume she objected to the adult nature of Mrs. Robinson, and I assume she was self-aware enough to know she was too old for Maria and didn't have the soprano notes.

Ingrid refused to bow down to the ridiculous makeup and technicolor crap of the times. She refused to shave and redraw her eyebrows because she preferred a "natural glow". She was actually pioneering and wore her natural nose and features. Obviously she was pleasant enough to get away with it. Vince Minelli said she was like a "Viking's sweetheart...nothing about her was fake".

Can we all agree that Ingrid Bergman is a far better actress than someone like, I don't know, Katherine Hepburn? God, that woman is overrated.

R49, you are correct that the movies were ultimately better for the different casting. With The Graduate Doris Day would have blown up her hugely successful image. With The Sound of Music, however, it was nothing to do with the voice. The role of Maria was written for Mary Martin -not a soprano. Keys were moved up for Julie Andrews to suit her voice. Doris Day said that she was, and looked, too American to play an Austrian nun. If only they had cast her in South Pacific when they had the chance...

Everything seemed so effortless about her, very charming. She was very feminine without being dainty or docile, I think it added to her allure. Did men like her? Or were her films considered 'women's pictures'?

Kenneth Williams, which whom she appeared in a play in London late in her career, told stories about what a kind person she was, and an absolutely charming hostess. Given how snide Williams could be, that says an awful lot about her.

[italic]– Mike, would you like me better if I were a nun? Like in the story, you know?

– No.

– Then would you like me better if I were Ingrid Bergman?

– Now that’s a thought… [/italic]

The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972).

Bergman was the one great beauty of Hollywood's classic era who was taken seriously as an actress, and that's because she never let herself be so Hollywoodized that she lost her ability to become different characters.

Other actresses became so glamorous, so overly made up, so distinctive in mannerism and look that they became a persona rather than a person. Which is great fun in its way, but it's not acting, no acting is becoming a variety of people in your roles while a persona is basically the same in each film. Bergman could always play sluts and nuns, poor girls and rich women, downtrodden wives and top professionals and divas, etc.

She made a film in Nazi Germany (Die Vier Gesellen, 1938). So, not "the most perfect" career.

She had amnesia about it. There are a few clips in the documentary HITLER'S HOLLYWOOD.

R37, I know. Ingrid did the film as a favor to Vincente...Liza was probably just stoned. It was a terrible movie. I felt bad for all of them.

OP, that shade towards Bette Davis was unnecessary, especially since she's more known today than Ingrid Bergman.

[quote] Ingrid only did the Swedish version of "A Woman's Face:" The Hollywood version starred Miss Crawford, one of her better roles.

I hope you're kidding. The original film wasn't perfect but it was a straightforward and well-paced crime film. The MGM version turned it into a lifeless and totally dull courtroom drama, annoyingly told in a series of flashbacks. And Bergman's make-up was much more gruesome and interesting too. Of course Miss Crawford would never agree to look like Quasimodo on film, like Bergman did.

But the Hollywood version of Intermezzo was definitely an improvement over the original one. The Swedish version was totally ruined by that ghoul who played the male lead (it was the same actor who also ruined Murnau's version of Faust).

bump

Selective pic, R60. Crawford's make-up was more gruesome and she won critical acclaim for her role.

Americans turned on Ingrid horribly...hell, even Errol Flynn kinda got a pass for statutory rape.

She is a double Best Actress Oscar Winner

She has won BOTH Best Actress & Best Supporting Actress Oscar

She has won both the Emmy & Tony Award

But no Grammy.

R65 At least my Tony wasn't a "special" one.

Haha, Ingrid had one more Oscar than Babs too

R59, is Bette Davis better known now than Ingrid Bergman? I’m thinking Casablanca is more popular with the general public than All About Eve or Baby Jane.

Joan's Face...

And...

R68, due to Feud, which was hugely popular, Bette Davis is known more now to the younger audience than ever before.

And Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is the type of movie, despite being in black-and-white, that appeals to younger people since it's in the horror genre. Frankly, most people talk about Bogart in Casablanca more than Bergman.

R71, I loved Feud but I don’t think it was a big mainstream hit. Just a few eldergays.

She should have won a third (Leading) Actress Oscar for Autumn Donata. Jane Fonda for being right about the Vietnam War and daringly getting a perm to mark character development in Coming Home (Voight deserved his, asshole that he has become notwithstanding, and I would have given BSA to Dern over Walken).

She's a whore dear.

Has anyone acted on screen in more languages? IB did so in Swedish, English, Italian, French, and German. And not just phonetically, either.

I will never forgive that tramp Ingrid Bergman in 1950 for having a son with Italian director Roberto Rossellini, to whom she was not married at the time. She left behind her husband, who was a DOCTOR, and her little girl in California to traipse off to Italy to sleep with that Italian gigolo. Me and my Christian garden club will never watch another movie she's in.

I rewatched A Woman's Face last night (the original one, of course). It's a much better movie than I remembered. It's easy to see why they noticed Bergman in Hollywood so quickly.

But I almost fell out of my sofa at the end of the movie, when the end titles rolled - Swedes happen to have an unintentionally hilarious word for "the end".

I find Hedda to be a pill. At least Ingrid makes her a luminous pill.

Very charming in Swedish:

^ I don't know what they're saying but they do look intimate. She's rugged up in her mink and almost in cuddling distance to that unknown man.

[italic]Isabella Rossellini , Liv Ullmann & Sigourney Weaver Discuss Ingrid Bergman 2015

A Matter of Time

Under Capricorn

A Walk in the Spring Rain

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Goodbye Again

Most popular female star of Hollywood? Most popular female star of all time?

Certainly not during most of the time frame you reference.

Top 15 Adjusted Domestic Box Office Leaders 1940 – 1949? (Box office grosses) She's not on it. Van Johnson was #1...

Top 15 Average Critic/Audience Rating Leaders 1940 – 1949? Bergman's #7, behind Joseph Cotten, Burt Lancaster, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, and Katharine Hepburn.

Top 15 Average UMR Score Per Movie 1940 - 1949? Bergman's #4 after Katharine Hepburn, Teresa Wright, and Gregory Peck.

Top Movie Stars 1940-1949? Bergman's #17, between Paulette Goddard and Betty Grable.

Don't get me wrong, I think she was great. If she did nothing else but Casablanca she'd be just as unforgettable and Bergman made many more great movies. But her early "perfect career" ended in a firestorm of scandal in 1950. Bergman, the superb actress who played nuns and martyrs above reproach, deserted her husband, Petter Lindstrom, and child to live in Italy with Rossellini and bear his illegitimate son, Roberto. Her fans were horrified that their silver screen saint was merely human. In a more innocent era, the Bergman-Lindstrom-Rossellini triangle shocked people worldwide. The affair was even denounced from the floor of the U.S. Senate. Lindstrom, a neurosurgeon, was said to have remained bitter toward the actress for her desertion of him and their daughter. Biographer Laurence Leamer in his 1986 “As Time Goes By, The Life of Ingrid Bergman” quoted Lindstrom: “Ingrid said, ‘I’m only interested in two kinds of people, those who can entertain me, and those who can advance my career.’ ”

Mother and daughter

She turned down An Affair To Remember? And she wanted The Graduate?

I recently watched Midnight Cowboy and thought she would have been terrific in the "Sylvia Miles" role.

[quote]Sorry, Bette Davis doesn't count.

Maybe she didn't have a perfect movie career, but "doesn't count"? I don't get it, that's dismissive af

Spencer Tracy had a pretty great movie career. He made more films than Bergman (I think) and was a box office draw for decades. He was a star until the end. Jimmy Stewart had a fantastic movie career, he merely lived until he was too old to act any longer. Cary Grant had a wonderful career too, he just retired early.

*And John Wayne's career was one of the greatest, he was (unlike Bergman) still big box office when he was old.

Never got her appeal at all. She always carried a touch of reserved superiority to every role and was utterly lacking in sensuality. Plus, she was sturdily built, to put it kindly.

R88 You must have missed those movies where she plays a harlot.

Are you a small person, R88? Is that the issue here?

R24/R25 That biopic is a work of art. Poetry from start to finish. It stayed with me for days.

R90 Yes, I really enjoyed it too! It humanized her in a way that I think is rarely done in documentaries about "celebrities." I should watch it again!

Bergman was a leading lady. She rarely carried a movie on her own. She needed Cary Grant. Bette Davis needed George Brent.

R91 The score alone is a masterpiece.

R92, Bette Davis never needed bland George Brent. Grant and Bergman were equally charismatic. Brent couldn't hold a candle to Bette.

My point was that Bette Davis rarely had a male costar if equal stature because she could carry a film by her own star power.

George Brent's blandness played well against divas like Bette, Joan and Barbara.

You people haven't heard about the Warner Bros philosophy.

People in the 30s saw movies regularly more than once a week and they weren't so interested in quality. Warner Bros had to provide hundreds of movies to fill up all those double-feature programs across the country.

Jack L Warner said Bette and Cagney were A-list stars and George Brent was a B-list. Warner would spread the A-listers across the wide number of product produced.

He wouldn't put 2 A-listers in the one movie; 2 A-Listers in two movies meant double money at the box office.

A never would have cleared that up ever so well, R95. Whatever he had she must have liked since they did 11 films and slept together. I had no idea that besides Bette, Brent bedded Garbo, Stanwyck, de Havilland, Oberon and Loretta Young at some point among his five marriages, counting Ruth Chatterton and Ann Sheridan among his wives.

I still wanna know what Ann Sheridan meant when someone asked her why she divorced George Brent and she allegedly replied, "Brent Bent.". Must've meant something dirty.

Clara Lou Sheridan didn't know what she was talking about. Clutching at straws blaming others for her broken home.

I also believe that Ann was one of several Golden Age actresses unable to bear children because of a botched abortion. Ann, Jane Russell, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, even Myrna Loy all got pregnant before they became stars and had to get abortions. Joan used them as a method of birth control and that kept her from carrying children full term.

R101 Sadly, true, and famously, Marilyn Monroe was another victim.

B.D. Hyman should have been an abortion.

Ingrid does have the best career of any major actresses in the world. She boasts the best filmography of any major actresses. Her work with Rossellini brought her three masterpieces in TSPDT top 1000, with two in the prestigious Sight and Sound top 250. Casablanca and Notorious both made the list as well.

She was a huge box office draw in her days boasting 11 North America box office top 10, leading all Hollywood actresses. And she was the most rewarded actress in the Golden Hollywood era. besides 3 Oscars, she has 4 Golden Globes and 6 major critics awards. The gay favorites Kate, Bette, Barbara and Joan? 0 GG among them. Kate and Bette each won a major critics award in their career and that is all.

Ingrid Bergman is one of the few performers from that era who could really act, in the naturalistic way we appreciate it now.

She really is all but forgotten. Sorry OP, but not everybody merits "icon" status.

She is really forgotten that the most prestigious DVD/blu Ray label Criterion collection has 14 of her films in their collection. Bette: 2; Mama Meh: 1; Joan: 1.

I just finished watching "Autumn Sonata," which was released in 1978. It was surreal to see an actress renowned for her beauty not looking like a freakshow in her 60s. You could tell she hadn't had a single cosmetic procedure and she was still gorgeous, wrinkles and all. She also turned in quite a performance.

I can't agree, OP, that the wonderful Ingrid Bergman had a perfect movie career.

She radiated intelligence and good sense for a long time. She was a pioneer of that movement to get out of the Hollywood studio rut and explore overseas; she did it in 1948 and lots of other Hollywood powerful taste-merchants followed her five years later.

Though she appeared in turkeys in the late 60s. And she knew they were turkeys. Look how she received an Oscar for that silly short caricature of a role in 'Murder on Orient Express'. Look at the Youtube video of how sheepish she looked receiving an Oscar for a tiny role which required NONE of her intelligence or skill.

R105 Exactly. You never caught her "acting."

^ Yes, I adore Ingrid but the only time I get suspicious of her is when she does scenes of hysteria (eg 'Gaslight').

She does an instantaneous switch from tears to smile and back to tears again. Judy did it as well. I wonder if George Cukor taught them to do that?

[quote] She is really forgotten that the most prestigious DVD/blu Ray label Criterion collection has 14 of her films in their collection. Bette: 2; Mama Meh: 1; Joan: 1.

And Marlane Dietrich has seven films in the Criterion collection. But you rarely hear people talk about her today like Bette and Joan.

So, I wouldn't use the Criterion collection for a meter as to which classic film star is more memorable today.

I think Bette, Joan and Hepburn are remembered more for their public characters than their work. Am I wrong?

I doubt the average jo/Joe could name many of their movies if asked.

Sure. criterion collection alone is not a definitive measure of value of films. Like I said earlier, her films has a steady presence on Sight and Sound top 250, TSPDT top 1000, well regarded list of world cinema classics. Her films with Rossellini are highly regarded with Voyage to Italy as thought of the pioneer of modern cinema. She worked with some of the absolutely top auteurs of the world cinema including Hitchcock, Rossellini, Bergman, Renoir, Cukor. Find another actress who is ace for top box office draw, star power, awards and a filmography graced with multiple landmark films. None.

I didn't think that 6 foot 5 Ingrid was all that convincing as Golds Meir.

I'm surprised no Millennial has accused her of racism yet. She refers to Sam the piano player in 'Casablanca' as 'Boy'.

Face it, faggots, I was the slut of all time!