Today marks the 99th birthday for our beloved Ingrid Bergman! It also is the 32nd anniversary of her death. That's right, if this is your first time reading one of my birthday posts, fun fact: Ingrid Bergman died on her 67th birthday.
Ingrid's life was one filled with as much drama as the parts she played on the screen. Her mother died when she was 3, her father died when she was 12 and her aunt died in Ingrid's arms 6 months following. She worked hard for her dreams. She studied theater, piano and singing and acting was always her calling. She was a beauty who knew how to work the system.
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The drama didn't end there. She had a baby when she was 23 and was married to a dentist who followed her to Hollywood when her career took off and made her a star. She had affairs with powerful men, including Victor Fleming (75 years ago... You know, the guy who directed "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind" in the same year), Robert Capa (the guy who took those famous WWII Normandy photos and later died because he stepped on a land mine) and later she would end her marriage with Peter Lindstrom by fleeing the states for Italy with Roberto Rossellini.
She was declared "Persona Non Grata" on the US Senate floor and wouldn't return to the States until after a decade.
Her work spoke for itself and for her. It lives on, thankfully, and though her full-circle time on this earth expired, her films immortalized those beautiful moments on screen.
Personally, I feel Ingrid Bergman has been a humanized star. She is someone I've watched time and again bring life to the screen and she has always inspired me to follow my ambitions and dreams.
Today, I celebrate the life and work of Ingrid Bergman, though I carry her in my head and heart everyday to utilize part of her path to guide my own.
The world made a better place thanks to Ingrid's work, especially the cinematic world.
Happy Birthday, Ingrid!
