At one time, Ingrid Bergman was one of cinema's most beloved actresses in the world. When she came to America, Bergman could barely speak any English and didn't have the definitive
Hollywood starlet look, but none of that mattered when people saw her on the big screen. Throughout her career, she appeared in some of the greatest movies of her era and took home a number of awards for her iconic characters.
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Here are five Bergman roles that completely defined her legendary career.
1. Ilsa Lund, "Casablanca" (1942)
The most famous role of Bergman's entire career was one of her first major leading roles. Bergman starred in "Casablanca" as Ilsa Lund, a woman stuck in a love triangle between bar owner Rick Blaine and resistance leader Victor Laszlo. The movie is set against the backdrop of World War II and is about patriotism as much as about love.
Critic Roger Ebert wrote that "like a favorite musical album; the more I know it, the more I like it."
2. Alicia Huberman, "Notorious" (1946)
Bergman joined forces with Alfred Hitchcock in 1946 to star alongside Cary Grant in "Notorious." Bergman stars as Alicia, an American whose father was a convicted Nazi spy. She is enlisted by a government agency to seduce one of her father's friends, played by Claude Rains, and a love triangle forms with her handler as the second man. Ebert states that this film helped assure "Ingrid Bergman's immortality."
3. Dr. Constance Peterson, "Spellbound" (1945)
Before Bergman starred in "Notorious" with Hitchcock, she starred in his 1945 release "Spellbound," alongside Gregory Peck. Bergman plays a psychoanalyst at a mental hospital who learns that the new director at the hospital might not be who he seems. The movie is a mystery full of twists and turns and
The New York Times review stated that Bergman was Hitchcock's "chief asset in accomplishing the sincerity of this film."
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4. Paula Alquist, "Gaslight" (1944)
Released in 1944, "Gaslight" is an adaptation of the London stage play about a woman who is afraid that her husband is the same man who murdered her aunt years before. Bergman plays the woman, who is a famed opera star, while Charles Boyer plays the man she fears is a killer.
The Variety review at the time calls it a faithful adaptation and credits both the "performances of the stars and the screenplay."
5. Maria, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943)
In interviews after making "Casablanca," Bergman often said that the movie was not as important to her as others that she had made, saying that Swedish people prefer more serious material. That is what made her role in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" so special to her as she was specially chosen by author Ernest Hemingway to star in the film.
The New York Times review boasts that the film is "produced as magnificently as any film has ever been."
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