Current Female Actresses

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Current Female Actresses Biography
  Paulette Goddard (June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990)[1] was an American film actress. A child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl, she became a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943).
Contents

    1 Early life
    2 Career
    3 Later life
    4 Death
    5 Family
    6 Legacy
 

Early life

Paulette Goddard was born Marion Pauline Levy in Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York. She was the only child of Joseph Russell Levy, who was Jewish, and Alta Mae Goddard, who was Episcopalian and of English heritage.[2] Her parents divorced while she was young, and she was raised by her mother. Her father virtually vanished from her life, only to resurface later in the 1930s after she became a star.[citation needed] At first, their newfound relationship seemed genial and they attended film premières together, but later he sued her over a magazine article in which she purportedly claimed he abandoned her when she was young. They never reconciled. On his death, he left her one dollar in his will. She remained very close to her mother, however, as both had struggled through those early years, with her great uncle, Charles Goddard (her grandfather's brother) lending a hand.[citation needed]

Charles Goddard helped his great niece find jobs as a fashion model, and with the Ziegfeld Follies as one of the heavily decorated Ziegfeld Girls from 1924 to 1928. She attended Washington Irving High School in Manhattan at the same time as future film star Claire Trevor.
Career

Her stage debut was in the Ziegfeld revue No Foolin in 1926, and played a small role in Rio Rita.[3] The next year she made her stage acting debut in The Unconquerable Male. She also changed her first name to Paulette and took her mother's maiden name (which also happened to be her favorite great uncle Charles' last name) as her own last name. She married an older, wealthy businessman, lumber tycoon Edgar James, in 1926 or 1927 and moved to North Carolina. Goddard returned to Hollywood in 1929, and she and James later divorced.[citation needed]
Goddard in Dramatic School (1938).

Upon her return to Hollywood, with her mother, Goddard appeared in small roles in The Girl Habit (1931) and The Mouthpiece (1932). She signed a contract with Hal Roach Studios, and appeared in films such as The Kid from Spain and Laurel and Hardy's Pack Up Your Troubles (both 1932). In 1932, she met Charlie Chaplin. Goddard was considering investing the money from her divorce settlement in a film venture but Chaplin intervened when he discovered the deal was fraudulent, and bought out her contract from Roach. Chaplin began planning a film with Goddard that was released in 1936 as Modern Times.[3] In the interim, Goddard appeared in a few films for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. Along with such actresses as Betty Grable, Lucille Ball, and Ann Sothern, Goddard became a "Goldwyn Girl" and was featured in films such as Roman Scandals (1933) and Kid Millions (1934). During this time she lived with Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home. Their marital status was a source of controversy and speculation. During most of their time together, both refused to comment on the matter.[4] Chaplin maintained that they were married in China in 1936, but to private associates and family, he claimed they were never legally married, except in common law.
publicity photo 1940s

Following the success of Modern Times, Chaplin planned other projects with Goddard in mind as a co-star, but he worked slowly and Goddard worried that the public might forget about her if she did not continue to make regular film appearances. She signed a contract with David O. Selznick and appeared with Janet Gaynor in the comedy The Young in Heart (1938) before Selznick loaned her to MGM to appear in two films. The first of these, Dramatic School (1938), costarred Luise Rainer, but the film received mediocre reviews and failed to attract an audience.[3] Her next film, The Women (1939), was a success. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, Goddard played the supporting role of Miriam Aarons. Pauline Kael later commented of Goddard, "she is a stand-out. She's fun."[5]
With Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940)

Selznick had been pleased with Goddard's recent performances, and specifically her work in The Young at Heart, and considered her for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Initial screen tests convinced him and the director George Cukor that Goddard would require coaching to be effective in the role, but that she showed promise,[6] and she was the first actress given a Technicolor screen test.[7] Russell Birdwell, the head of Selznick's publicity department, had strong misgivings about Goddard. He warned Selznick of the "tremendous avalanche of criticism that will befall us and the picture should Paulette be given this part… I have never known a woman, intent on a career dependent upon her popularity with the masses, to hold and live such an insane and absurd attitude towards the press and her fellow man as does Paulette Goddard… Briefly, I think she is dynamite that will explode in our very faces if she is given the part."[6] Selznick remained interested in Goddard and after he had been introduced to Vivien Leigh, he wrote to his wife that Leigh was a "dark horse" and that his choice had "narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh"[8] After a series of tests with Leigh that pleased both Selznick and Cukor, Selznick cancelled the further tests that had been scheduled for Goddard, and the part was given to Leigh.[8] It has been suggested that Goddard lost the part because Selznick feared questions surrounding her marital status with Chaplin would result in scandal.[4] However, Selznick was aware that Leigh and Laurence Olivier lived together as their respective spouses had refused to divorce them,[9] and in addition to offering Leigh a contract, he engaged Olivier as the leading man in his next production Rebecca (1940).[10] Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton wrote that Selznick was worried about legal issues by signing her to a contract that might conflict with her preexisting contracts with the Chaplin studio.[11]

Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope, was a turning point in the careers of both actors. She starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film The Great Dictator. The couple split amicably soon afterward, and Goddard allegedly obtained a divorce in Mexico in 1942, with Chaplin agreeing to a generous settlement. She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in the musical Second Chorus (1940), where she met her third husband Burgess Meredith. One of her best-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which she sang a comic number, A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang, with fellow sex symbols Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake.[citation needed]
from the trailer for So Proudly We Hail! (1943)

She received one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, for the 1943 film So Proudly We Hail!, but did not win. Her most successful film was Kitty (1945), in which she played the title role. In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), she starred opposite Meredith, whom she soon divorced. Cecil B. DeMille cast her in three blockbusters: North West Mounted Police (1940), Reap the Wild Wind (1942) (where Goddard played a Scarlett O'Hara-type role), and Unconquered (1947).

Her career faded in the late 1940s. In 1947 she made An Ideal Husband in Britain for Alexander Korda films, being accompanied on a publicity trip to Brussels by Clarissa Churchill, niece of Sir Winston and future wife of Prime Minister Anthony Eden. In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Her last starring roles were the English production A Stranger Came Home (known as The Unholy Four in the USA), and Charge of the Lancers in 1954. She also acted in summer stock and on television, including in the 1955 television remake of The Women, playing a different character than she played in the 1939 feature film. In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film, Time of Indifference, which turned out to be her last feature film. After her fourth husband Erich Maria Remarque's death in 1970, she made one last attempt at acting, when accepted a small role in an episode of The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.
Later life

Goddard was married to actor Burgess Meredith from 1944 to 1949. She suffered a miscarriage while married to him. In 1958 she married Erich Maria Remarque, author of, among other best-sellers, All Quiet on the Western Front. They remained married until his death in 1970, and she inherited much of his money and several important properties across Europe including a wealth of contemporary art, which augmented her own long-standing collection. During this period, her talent at accumulating wealth became a byword among the old Hollywood élite. During the 1980s she became a fairly well known (and highly visible) socialite in New York City society, appearing, covered with jewels, at many high-profile cultural functions with several well-known men including Andy Warhol, with whom she sustained a friendship for many years until his death in 1987.[12]
Death

Goddard was treated for breast cancer, apparently successfully. She later settled in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland, where she died after a short illness (reportedly emphysema) several months before her 80th birthday. She is buried in Ronco, next to Remarque and her mother.
Family

She had no children from any of her marriages, though she was the first step-mother to Charlie Chaplin's sons Charles Chaplin, Jr. and Sydney Chaplin whose mother was Lita Grey.
Legacy
in Modern Times (1936)

Goddard, who in her youth, missed out on an education because she had to support herself and her mother, bequeathed US$ 20 million to New York University (NYU). This was also in recognition of her friendship with the Indiana-born politician and former NYU President John Brademas. Goddard Hall, an NYU freshman residence hall on Washington Square, is named in her honor.

Efforts to raise CHF 6.2M ($7M), to purchase and save Remarque and Goddard's villa from demolition, are underway, proposing to transform the Casa Monte Tabor into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence program, focused on creativity, freedom and peace.[13]
Fictional portrayals

Goddard was portrayed by Diane Lane in the 1992 film Chaplin, and by actress Natalie Wilder in the 2011 play Puma, written by Julie Gilbert, who had also written the joint biography, Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard

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Black Female Actress List

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Black Female Actress List Biography
Thandiwe Nashita "Thandie" Newton[3] (born 6 November 1972) is an English actress.[4][5] She has appeared in a number of British and American films, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Mission: Impossible II, Crash, Run Fatboy Run, and W.
Contents

    1 Early life
    2 Career
    3 Personal life
    4 Filmography
    5 References
    6 External links

Early life

Newton was born in London, the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean health-care worker and Nick Newton,[6] a laboratory technician and artist.[7] Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies,[8] but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London, during a two-week trip by her parents.[1][2][9] The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved"[10] in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi, and "Thandie" is pronounced /ˈtændi/ TAN-dee in English. According to Newton, her mother is a Shona princess.[11][12] Regarding her childhood, Newton remarked at a TED conference: "From about the age of 5, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly."[13] Raised in London and Penzance, Cornwall, she studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and at sixteen, while recovering from a back injury, she successfully auditioned for her first film role.[14] She then went on to study social anthropology at Downing College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1995, where she achieved a 2:1.[15]
Career

Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991). While filming she struck up a friendship with Nicole Kidman, now a lifelong friend.[citation needed] She played the role of Brad Pitt's maid Yvette in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). She gained international recognition in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings, which led to her being cast in Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), in which she played the title character with co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She played the female lead Nyah Hall in the film Mission: Impossible II. She was originally anticipated to play Alex Munday in the film Charlie's Angels, but turned it down to appear in the low-budget film It Was an Accident.[16] Lucy Liu was ultimately given the part.

Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, the love interest, and later wife of Dr. John Carter on the American television series ER. She reprised the role once more for the series finale in 2009. In 2004 also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick and Crash. In the latter, she played Christine Thayer, a wealthy black woman who, along with her husband, finds herself the target of a racist policeman (played by Matt Dillon), who sexually assaults Thayer but then later saves her life after he is the first on the scene at a car crash. Newton was honoured with a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for her role in Crash. She also played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness.

In addition to her film and television credits she played the title role in a 2006 radio pantomime version of Cinderella.[17]
Newton at the 2007 BAFTAs

In 2007, she starred with Eddie Murphy in the comedy Norbit as his love interest, and opposite Simon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the comedy Run Fat Boy Run.

Newton next portrayed U.S. National Security Advisor-turned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in W., Oliver Stone's film biography of President George W. Bush. The film was released 17 October 2008.

Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007 for the UK leg of Live Earth. She was due to introduce Al Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.[18]

Newton next portrayed the United States President's First Daughter Laura Wilson in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009.

In July 2011, Newton delivered a TED Talk on "Embracing otherness, embracing myself". In it, she discussed finding her "otherness" as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and as an actor playing with many different selves.[19]
Personal life

Newton claims that director John Duigan coerced her, when she was sixteen years old, into a relationship with him that lasted six years, despite his being twenty-three years her senior.[20]

She married English writer/director/producer Ol Parker in 1998. The couple have two daughters: Ripley, born in 2000, and Nico, born in 2004. Her daughters were named after the character Ellen Ripley in the Alien films and the singer Nico.

In 2006, she contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the NSPCC. In it, she writes vividly about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall and the way in which the county's vibrant cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning".[21]

In 2008, Newton visited poverty-stricken Mali, describing it as a "humbling experience". She visited the village of Nampasso in the Ségou Region of the country.[22]

Newton swapped her BMW X5 for a Toyota Prius after protesters bombarded the car with eggs at the gates of her daughters’ school. She then wrote to her celebrity friends, asking them to join her in switching to more environmentally sound cars.[23]

Newton has suffered from bulimia.[24]

David Schwimmer (who directed Run Fatboy Run) called the actress "the queen of practical jokes".[25]

Newton is a Buddhis.

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Best Young Female Actresses

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Best Young Female Actresses Biography
Loretta Young made the leap from child actor to one of Hollywood's leading ladies of the 1930s and 1940s, making close to 100 films with directors such as Frank Capra, Cecil B. DeMille and Orson Welles and A-list leading men like Cary Grant,
Contents

    Synopsis
    Early Life
    Career Highlights
    Television Success
    Personal Life
    Later Years

Clark Gable and Tyrone Power. She won an Oscar for her role in The Farmer's Daughter and was one of the first female stars to command a six-figure salary.
Early Life

Actress. Born Gretchen Michaela Young, on January 6, 1913, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Young's parents separated when she was two years old, and she and her siblings moved with their mother to Hollywood, California, where their mother opened a boardinghouse. By the time she was four, Young had begun appearing as a child extra in silent films, often alongside her two older sisters. She attended a convent school, but returned to Hollywood at age 14 to sign a contract with First National Studio (the precursor of Warner Bros.), where studio executives gave her the professional name of Loretta.





Career Highlights

In the years to come, Young made a graceful transition from pretty child actor to one of Hollywood's foremost leading ladies of the 1930's and 1940's. She made close to 100 films, working with prominent directors such as Frank Capra (Platinum Blonde, 1931), Cecil B. DeMille (The Crusades, 1935), and Orson Welles (The Stranger, 1946), and A-list leading men like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Tyrone Power. Young won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic comedy The Farmer's Daughter (1947); she earned a second Best Actress Oscar nomination for Come to the Stable (1949). She also starred in the Christmas classic The Bishop's Wife (1947), costarring Grant and David Niven. The strong-willed Young was one of the first female stars to command a six-figure salary.
Television Success

In 1953, Young announced her retirement from film. After completing her last movie, It Happens Every Thursday (1953), she never returned to the big screen. Instead, Young signed a contract with Proctor & Gamble and the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to produce and star in her own dramatic anthology television series, The Loretta Young Show. The show ran for eight seasons from 1953 to 1961, making Young one of the first major Hollywood stars to build a successful career in the fledgling medium of television. She won the first of her three Emmy Awards in 1953, becoming the first actress to win both an Oscar and an Emmy.
Personal Life

Young also consistently made headlines for her personal life, beginning in 1930 when she eloped at age 17 with the much-older Grant Withers, her costar in the film The Second Story Murder (1930). Their marriage was annulled the following year. In 1940, Young married the television producer Thomas H.A. Lewis, with whom she had two sons, Christopher and Peter. Young and Lewis divorced in 1969.

In 1994, Young's daughter, Judy Lewis who had been publicly presented since the 1930s as the actress' adopted child and had taken Young's second husband's name claimed in her autobiography, Uncommon Knowledge, that she was actually the daughter of Young and Clark Gable. Lewis claimed she was conceived during the making of The Call of the Wild (1935), in which Young and Gable (then married to his first wife, Ria Langham) costarred. Young refused to ever publicly confirm or deny her daughter's account during her lifetime, and the two were estranged for several months after the book's publication. (In a biography published after her death, Young admitted in an interview with the book's author that Gable was indeed the father of Judy Lewis.)
Later Years

After leaving show business altogether in 1963 to devote her time to Catholic charities, Young returned to the small screen in several television movies in the late 1980s. Her last major role was in Lady in the Corner, a 1989 television drama. In her later years, Young was increasingly reclusive, though she made occasional public appearances in support of her favorite charities. She lived in Palm Springs, California, with her third husband (since 1994), the Oscar-winning costume designer Jean Louis, until his death in 1997. Young died of ovarian cancer on August 12, 2000.

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Famous Black Female Actresses

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Famous Black Female Actresses Biography
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker became an international musical and political icon. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess".

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou, to integrate an American concert hall,[3] and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down),[4] for assisting the French Resistance during World War II,[5] and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
Contents

    1 Early life
    2 Rise to fame
    3 Civil rights activism
    4 Personal life
    5 Death
    6 Legacy
        6.1 Portrayals
    7 Film credits
    8 References
    9 Further reading
    10 External links

Early life

Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri,[1][2] the daughter of Carrie McDonald. Her estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father.[6] A biography written by her foster son Jean-Claude Baker stated:

    … (Josephine Baker's) father was identified (on the birth certificate) simply as "Edw" … I think Josephine's father was white—so did Josephine, so did her family … people in St. Louis say that (Josephine's mother) had worked for a German family (around the time she became pregnant). (Carrie) let people think Eddie Carson was the father, and Carson played along … (but) Josephine knew better.[7]

Her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were former slaves of African and Native American descent.[7] When Baker was eight she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her, burning Baker's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry.[8][9] She later went to work for another woman.

Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans.[10] Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) with Adelaide Hall and The Chocolate Dandies (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if she was unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point she would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. Baker was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville".[3]

On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. Her success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion. In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.[3]
Rise to fame

After a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her "… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw."[11][12] In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in three films which found success only in Europe: the silent film Siren of the Tropics (1927), Zouzou (1934) and Princesse Tam Tam (1935). She also starred in Fausse Alerte in 1940.[13]
Baker in a topless photo shoot.

At this time she also scored her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior. Under the management of Giuseppe Pepito Abatino — a Sicilian former stonemason who passed himself off as a count — Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, were transformed.

In 1934 she took the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's 1875 opera La créole at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées of Paris, which premiered in December of that year for a six month run. In preparation for her performances she went through months of training with a vocal coach. In the words of Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, "… she went from a 'petite danseuse sauvage' with a decent voice to 'la grande diva magnifique' … I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer."[14]

Despite her popularity in France, she never obtained the same reputation in America. Upon a visit to the United States in 1935-1936, her performances received poor opening reviews for her starring role in the Ziegfeld Follies and she was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run.[15]

Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married a Frenchman, Jean Lion, who was Jewish, and became a French citizen.[16] They were married in the French town of Crèvecœur-le-Grand. The wedding was presided over by the mayor at the time, Jammy Schmidt. During the ceremony, when she was asked if she was ready to give up her American citizenship, it has been claimed that she renounced it without difficulty.[17]

Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker's agent's brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent"; if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race, not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish. Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in-the-know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She attended parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gathered information. She helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers. When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led from England by Charles de Gaulle. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations such as Portugal, and returning to France. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.[18]
Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston, 1926

She helped mount a production in Marseille to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France. Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker's health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942. After her recovery, she started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt's King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved.[19]

After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de guerre and the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.[20]

In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record-breaking attendance. In 1968, Baker visited Yugoslavia and made appearances in Belgrade and in Skopje. In 1973, she opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation, and in 1974, she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.
Civil rights activism
Josephine Baker in Havana, Cuba 1950

Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, whom she called the "Rainbow Tribe."[21] In addition, she refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States.[5] Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.[3]

In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in Manhattan, where she alleged that she'd been refused service.[22][23] Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident.[24] Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco). (However, during his work on the Stork Club book, author and New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Josephine Baker's sons. Having read a Blumenthal-written story about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and, using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown.[25])

Baker worked with the NAACP.[5] In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.[26] Baker was the only official female speaker and while wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur she introduced the "Negro Women for Civil Rights."[27] Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates were among those she acknowledged and both gave brief speeches. After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "too young to lose their mother".[4]
Personal life

Baker had 12 children through adoption. She bore only one child herself, stillborn in 1941, an incident which precipitated an emergency hysterectomy. Baker raised two daughters, French-born Marianne and Moroccan-born Stellina, and ten sons, Korean-born Jeannot (or Janot), Japanese-born Akio, Colombian-born Luis, Finnish-born Jari (now Jarry), French-born Jean-Claude and Noël, Israeli-born Moïse, Algerian-born Brahim, Ivorian-born Koffi, and Venezuelan-born Mara.[28][29] For some time, Baker lived with her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France, with her fourth husband Jo Bouillon (a French conductor).

Josephine Baker was married four times. Her first marriage was to pullman Willie Wells in 1918 when she was just 13, and which was reportedly a very unhappy marriage. It was short lived and they divorced a short time later. She married Willie Baker in 1921 but that marriage also was short lived. She retained that last name simply because her career began taking off during that time and that is the last name with which she became best known. In 1937 she married Frenchman Jean Lion, during which time she received French citizenship and became a permanent expatriate. She and Lion separated before he passed away. In 1947 she married French Composer Jo Bouillon. They also divorced. She was later involved for a time with artist Joe Brady, but they never married.[30][31][32][33]

Baker was bisexual. Her son Jean-Claude Baker and co-author Chris Chase state in Josephine: The Hungry Heart that she was involved in numerous lesbian affairs, both while she was single and married, and mention six of her female lovers by name. Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women whom she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career. She was also reportedly involved intimately with French writer Colette. Not mentioned, but confirmed since, was her affair with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.[34] Jean-Claude Baker, who interviewed over 2,000 people while writing his book, wrote that affairs with women were not uncommon for his mother throughout her lifetime.[35] He was quoted in one interview as saying:

    "She was what today you would call bisexual, and I will tell you why. Forget that I am her son, I am also a historian. You have to put her back into the context of the time in which she lived. In those days, Chorus Girls were abused by the white or black producers and by the leading men if he liked girls. But they could not sleep together because there were not enough hotels to accommodate black people. So they would all stay together, and the girls would develop lady lover friendships, do you understand my English? But wait wait...If one of the girls by preference was gay, she'd be called a bull dyke by the whole cast. So you see, discrimination is everywhere."

Death

On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris, Joséphine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The opening-night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.[36]

Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died, aged 68, on April 12, 1975.[36][37] Her funeral was held at L'Église de la Madeleine. The first American-born woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco in Monte Carlo.[36]
Legacy

Place Joséphine Baker in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Hall of Famous Missourians. Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine "Piscine Joséphine Baker".

Two of Baker's sons, Jean-Claude and Jarry (Jari), grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant Chez Josephine on Theatre Row, 42nd Street, New York, which celebrates Baker's life and works.[38]

Château des Milandes near Sarlat in the Dordogne is Josephine Baker's lovely home where she raised her 13 children. Chateau des Millandes is a fairy tale manageable size castle which is one of the most beautiful examples of French architecture in this area. It is open to the public and displays her wonderful stage outfits including her banana skirt (of which there are apparently several). It also displays many family photographs and documents as well as her legion dhoneur medal. Most rooms are open for the public to walk through including bedrooms with little cots in where her children slept, a huge kitchen and a glamourous dining room where she often entertained large groups. Her bathrooms are glitzy in art deco style but most rooms have been retained the French chateau style. The gardens are beautiful and well kept and there is a falconry display daily.

Josephine Baker stayed in Marrakech whilst recovering from surgery for a hysterectomy. She is believed to have been close friends with the Pasha of Marrakech who lived at what is now the location of the Muse de marrakech. He invited her and her entourage to stay in a riad home adjoining his palace. This building is currently being renovated (by Mike Wood and Lucie ndersen-Wood from the UK) and will open in 2013 as an art deco style boutique hotel. The owners of Riad Star had no idea that Josephine Baker had once lived in their riad. But soon after they purchased the house from a Frenchman in 2009 Mike visited the neighbours to introduce himself and to let them know that he was going to be doing some renovations to the home. The next door neighbour asked what they were planning to call the riad and Mike Wood explained they planned to call it Riad Star. 'Of course!" the neighbour exclaimed, "that will be because of the great star who used to live there!" . Mike replied that "no it was just a lovely name thought of by their daughter Francesca who had noticed that you could see thousands of stars from the rooftop terrace at night". Mike asked: "which star is this?" the neighbour replied: 'Josephine Baker." expecting Mike to know her. Mike had never heard of her as she is far better known in France and the USA than in the UK. When back in the UK Mike and Lucie googled Josephine Baker and discovered what an amazing star had lived in their new house and immediately became entranced by her amazing life story and what she stood for. The decoration for her riad-house was art deco style (one wonders if the Pasha arranged for this especially for Josephine) which they were going to change into a more traditional Moroccan style. But now it would seem a shame to change Josephine's house any more than was absolutely necessary. So Riad Star is now being renovated to be a house fit for the star that Josephine Baker was respecting her art deco style and love of beautiful things. To hear of progress in renovating Josephine's Marrakesh home look at Mike and Lucie's

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Females Actresses

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Females Actresses Biography
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 1915 – 29 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films.[1] She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), a World War II drama co-starring Humphrey Bogart and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946), an Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Cary Grant.[2]

Before becoming a star in American films, she had already been a leading actress in Swedish films. Her first introduction to American audiences came with her starring role in the English remake of Intermezzo in 1939. In America, she brought to the screen a "Nordic freshness and vitality", along with exceptional beauty and intelligence, and according to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, she quickly became "the ideal of American womanhood" and one of Hollywood's greatest leading actresses.[3]

After her excellent performance in Victor Fleming's remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1941, she was noticed by her future producer David O. Selznick, who called her "the most completely conscientious actress" he had ever worked with. He gave her a seven-year acting contract, thereby supporting her continued success. A few of her other starring roles, besides Casablanca, included For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Gaslight (1944), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949), and the independent production, Joan of Arc (1948).

In 1950, after a decade of stardom in American films, she starred in the Italian film Stromboli, which led to a love affair with director Roberto Rossellini while they were both already married. The affair and then marriage with Rossellini created a scandal that forced her to remain in Europe until 1956, when she made a successful Hollywood return in Anastasia, for which she won her second Academy Award, as well as the forgiveness of her fans. Many of her personal and film documents can be seen in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives.[4]
Contents

    1 Early years: 1915–1938
    2 Hollywood period: 1939–1949
        2.1 Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)
        2.2 Casablanca (1942)
        2.3 For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
        2.4 Gaslight (1944)
        2.5 Hitchcock films
        2.6 Joan of Arc (1948)
    3 Personal life
    4 Italian period with Rossellini: 1949–1957
        4.1 Stromboli and "neorealism"
    5 Later years: 1957–1982
        5.1 Anastasia (1956)
        5.2 Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
        5.3 Autumn Sonata (1978)
        5.4 A Woman Called Golda (1982) – her final role
    6 Death and legacy
        6.1 Autobiography
    7 Awards
    8 Filmography
    9 Notes
    10 References
    11 External links
        11.1 Biographical profiles
        11.2 Official sites
        11.3 Interviews
        11.4 Videos
        11.5 Audios
        11.6 Other

Early years: 1915–1938
Ingrid Bergman at 14

Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 29 August 1915 to a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman, and a German mother, Friedel (Adler) Bergman.[5] When she was three years of age, her mother died. Her father, who was an artist and photographer, died when she was thirteen. In the years before he died, he wanted her to become an opera star, and had her take voice lessons for three years. But she always "knew from the beginning that she wanted to be an actress", sometimes wearing her mother's clothes and staging plays in her father's empty studio. Her father documented all her birthdays with a borrowed camera.[6]
Her first film, Munkbrogreven (1934) at age 19.

After his death, she was then sent to live with an aunt, who died of heart complications only six months later. She then moved in with her Aunt Hulda and Uncle Otto, who had five children. Another aunt she visited, Elsa Adler, first told Ingrid, when she was 11, that her mother may have "some Jewish blood", and that her father was aware of that fact long before they married. But her aunt also cautioned her about telling others about her possible ancestry as "there might be some difficult times coming."[5]:294

At the age of 17, Bergman was allowed only one chance to become an actress by entering an acting competition with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.[5]:30–31 Bergman recalls her feelings during that competition:

    "As I walked off the stage, I was in mourning, I was at a funeral. My own. It was the death of my creative self. My heart had truly broken... they didn't think I was even worth listening to, or watching."

However, her impression was wrong, as she later met one of the judges who described how the others viewed her performance:

    "We loved your security and your impertinence. We loved you and told each other that there was no reason to waste time as there were dozens of other entrants still to come. We didn't need to waste any time with you. We knew you were a natural and great. Your future as an actress was settled."[5]:31–33

As a result she received a scholarship to the state-sponsored Royal Dramatic Theatre School, where Greta Garbo had years earlier also earned a similar scholarship. After a few months she was given a part in a new play, Ett Brott (A Crime), by Sigfrid Siwertz. Yet, this was "totally against procedure" at the school, notes Chandler, where girls were expected to complete three years of study before getting such acting roles.[5]:33 During her first summer break, she was also hired by a Swedish film studio, which consequently led to her leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre to work in films full time, after just one year. Her first film role after leaving the Royal Dramatic Theatre was a small part in 1935's Munkbrogreven (She had previously been an extra in the 1932 film Landskamp). She later acted in a dozen films in Sweden, including En kvinnas ansikte, which was later remade as A Woman's Face with Joan Crawford, and one film in Germany, Die vier Gesellen ("The Four Companions") (1938).
Hollywood period: 1939–1949
Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939)

Bergman's first acting role in the United States came when Hollywood producer David O. Selznick brought her to America to star in Intermezzo: A Love Story, an English language remake of her 1936 Swedish film, Intermezzo. Unable to speak English and uncertain about her acceptance by the American audience, she expected to complete this one film and return home to Sweden. Her husband, Petter, remained in Sweden with their daughter Pia.[5]:63 In the film she played the role of a young piano accompanist opposite Leslie Howard as a famous violin virtuoso.

She arrived in Los Angeles on 6 May 1939, and stayed at the Selznick home until she could find another residence. According to David Selznick's son Danny, who was a child at the time, his father had a few concerns about Ingrid: "She didn't speak English, she was too tall, her name sounded too German, and her eyebrows were too thick." However, Bergman was soon accepted without having to modify her looks or name, despite some early suggestions by Selznick.[5]:6 "He let her have her way", notes a story in Life Magazine. Selznick understood her fear of Hollywood make-up artists, who might turn her into someone she wouldn't recognize, and "instructed them to lay off." He was also aware that her natural good looks would compete successfully with Hollywood's "synthetic razzle-dazzle."[6]

During the weeks following, while Intermezzo was being filmed, Selznick was also filming Gone with the Wind. In a letter to William Herbert, his publicity director, Selznick described a few of his early impressions of Bergman:

    "Miss Bergman is the most completely conscientious actress with whom I have ever worked, in that she thinks of absolutely nothing but her work before and during the time she is doing a picture ... She practically never leaves the studio, and even suggested that her dressing room be equipped so that she could live here during the picture. She never for a minute suggests quitting at six o'clock or anything of the kind... Because of having four stars acting in Gone with the Wind, our star dressing-room suites were all occupied and we had to assign her a smaller suite. She went into ecstasies over it and said she had never had such a suite in her life... All of this is completely unaffected and completely unique and I should think would make a grand angle of approach to her publicity... so that her natural sweetness and consideration and conscientiousness become something of a legend... and is completely in keeping with the fresh and pure personality and appearance which caused me to sign her..." [7]:135–136

With Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca

Intermezzo became an enormous success and as a result Bergman became a star. The film's director, Gregory Ratoff, said "She is sensational", as an actress. This was the "sentiment of the entire set", writes Life, adding that workmen would go out of their way to do things for her, and the cast and crew "admired the quick, alert concentration she gave to direction and to her lines."[6] Film historian David Thomson notes that this would become "the start of an astonishing impact on Hollywood and America" where her lack of makeup contributed to an "air of nobility." According to Life, the impression that she left on Hollywood, after she returned to Sweden, was of a tall (5 ft. 9 in.)[8] girl "with light brown hair and blue eyes who was painfully shy but friendly, with a warm, straight, quick smile."[6] Selznick appreciated her uniqueness, and with his wife Irene, they remained important friends throughout her career.[9]:76
Casablanca (1942)

After the onset of World War II, Bergman "felt guilty because she had so misjudged the situation in Germany" while she was there filming Die vier Gesellen (The Four Companions). According to one of her biographers, Charlotte Chandler (2007), she had at first considered the Nazis only a "temporary aberration, 'too foolish to be taken seriously.' She believed Germany would not start a war." Bergman felt that "The good people there would not permit it." Chandler adds, "Ingrid felt guilty all the rest of her life because when she was in Germany at the end of the war, she had been afraid to go with the others to witness the atrocities of the Nazi extermination camps."[5]:293–295

After completing one last film in Sweden and appearing in three moderately successful films (Adam Had Four Sons, Rage in Heaven and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, all in 1941) in the United States, Bergman co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 classic film Casablanca, which remains her best-known role. In this film, she played the role of Ilsa, the beautiful Norwegian wife of Victor Laszlo, played by Paul Henreid, an "anti-Nazi underground hero" who is in Casablanca, a safe-haven from the Nazis.[5] Bergman did not consider Casablanca to be one of her favorite performances. "I made so many films which were more important, but the only one people ever want to talk about is that one with Bogart."[10] In later years however, she stated, "I feel about Casablanca that it has a life of its own. There is something mystical about it. It seems to have filled a need, a need that was there before the film, a need that the film filled."[5]:88
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

After Casablanca, with "Selznick's steady boosting", she played the part of Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), which was also her first color film. For the role she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The film was taken from Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same title. When the book was sold to Paramount Pictures, Hemingway stated that "Miss Bergman, and no one else should play the part." His opinion came from seeing her in her first American role, Intermezzo, although he hadn't yet met her. A few weeks later, they did meet, and after studying her he said "You are Maria!"[6]
Gaslight (1944)
Publicity photo for film Gaslight (1944)

The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight (1944), a film in which George Cukor directed her as a "wife driven close to madness" by co-star Charles Boyer. The film, according to Thomson, "was the peak of her Hollywood glory."[9]:77 Bergman next played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) opposite Bing Crosby, for which she received her third consecutive nomination for Best Actress.
Hitchcock films

Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949). Unlike her earlier Hitchcock films, Under Capricorn, the only one of the three made in colour, was a slow-paced costume drama, and has never received the acclaim that the other films that Bergman made with Hitchcock have. Bergman was a student of the acting coach Michael Chekhov during the 1940s. Coincidentally, it was for his role in Spellbound that Chekhov received his only Academy Award nomination.[11]
Joan of Arc (1948)

Later, Bergman received another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), an independent film based on the Maxwell Anderson play Joan of Lorraine, produced by Walter Wanger, and initially released through RKO. Bergman had championed the role since her arrival in Hollywood, which was one of the reasons she had played it on the Broadway stage in Anderson's play. The film was not a big hit with the public, partly because of the scandal of Bergman's affair with Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, which broke while the film was still in theatres. Even worse, it received disastrous reviews, and although nominated for several Academy Awards, did not receive a Best Picture nomination. 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.

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 against segregation after seeing it first hand at the theater she was acting in. This led to a lot of publicity and some hate mail.

Bergman went to Alaska during World War II to entertain American 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 the famous photographer Robert Capa. She became a smoker after needing to smoke for her role in Arch of Triumph.
Personal life

In 1937, at the age of 21, Bergman married dentist, Petter Lindström (later to become a neurosurgeon), and a year and a half later had a daughter, Pia Lindström.

After returning to America in 1940, she acted on Broadway before continuing to do films in Hollywood. The following year, her husband arrived from Sweden with daughter Pia. Lindström stayed in Rochester, New York, where he studied medicine and surgery at the University of Rochester. Bergman would travel to New York and stay at their small rented stucco house between films, her visits lasting from a few days to four months.[6]

According to a Life magazine article, the "doctor regards himself as the undisputed head of the family, an idea that Ingrid accepts cheerfully." He insisted she draw the line between her film and personal life, as he has a "professional dislike for being associated with the tinseled glamor of Hollywood." Lindström later moved to San Francisco, California, where he completed his internship at a private hospital, and they continued to spend time together when she could travel between filmings.[6]
Italian period with Rossellini: 1949–1957
in Fear (1954)

Bergman strongly admired two films by Italian director Roberto Rossellini that she had seen in the United States. In 1949, Bergman wrote to Rossellini, expressing this admiration and suggesting that she make a film with him. This led to her being cast in his film Stromboli (1950). During production, Bergman fell in love with Rossellini, and they began an affair. Bergman became pregnant with their son, Renato Roberto Ranaldo Giusto Giuseppe ("Robin") Rossellini (born 2 February 1950).[12]:18

This affair caused a huge scandal in the United States, where it led to Bergman being denounced on the floor of the United States Senate. Ed Sullivan chose not to have her on his show, despite a poll indicating that the public wanted her to appear.[13] However, Steve Allen, whose show was equally popular, did have her on, later explaining "the danger of trying to judge artistic activity through the prism of one's personal life."[13] Spoto notes that Bergman had, by virtue of her roles and screen persona, placed herself "above all that". She had played a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) and a virgin saint in Joan of Arc (1948), and Bergman herself later acknowledged, "People saw me in Joan of Arc and declared me a saint. I'm not. I'm just a woman, another human being."[14]:300

As a result of the scandal, Bergman returned to Italy, leaving her husband and daughter (Pia), which led to a publicized divorce and custody battle for their daughter. Bergman and Rossellini were married on 24 May 1950. In addition to Renato, they had twin daughters (born 18 June 1952): Isabella Rossellini, who became an actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini, who became a professor of Italian literature.
Stromboli and "neorealism"
With husband Roberto Rossellini in 1951

Rossellini completed five films starring Bergman between 1949 and 1955: Stromboli, Europa '51, Viaggio in Italia, Giovanna d'Arco al rogo, and La paura.

He also directed her in a brief segment of his 1953 documentary film, Siamo donne (We, the Women), which was devoted to film actresses.[12]:18 Rossellini biographer Peter Bondanella notes that problems with communication during their marriage may have inspired his films' central themes of "solitude, grace and spirituality in a world without moral values."[12]:19
Memorial plaque on the house in Stromboli where Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini lived during filming of "Stromboli" in 1949

In addition, Rossellini's use of a Hollywood star in his typically "neorealist" films, in which he normally used non-professional actors, did provoke negative reactions in some circles. Bondanella speculates that this change may have been intentional: he may have "intended to provoke a significant change in direction within Italian cinema." In Stromboli, Bergman's first film with Rossellini, her character was "defying audience expectations" in that Rossellini preferred to work without a script. This forced Bergman to act most of her scenes "inspired by reality while she worked", a style which Bondanella calls "a new cinema of psychological introspection."[12]:98 She was aware of his directing style before filming however, as Rossellini had earlier written her explaining that he worked from "a few basic ideas, developing them little by little" as a film progressed.[12]:19

After separating from Rossellini, Bergman starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes, 1956), 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.
Later years: 1957–1982
Anastasia (1956)

With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia, Bergman made a triumphant return to the American screen and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. The award was accepted for her by her friend Cary Grant.[15] 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.[16] Furthermore, she was given a standing ovation, after being introduced by Cary Grant and walking out onto the stage to present the award.

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 Ford Startime TV series for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress.

During this time, Bergman also performed in several stage plays. In addition, she married the producer Lars Schmidt, a fellow Swede, on 21 December 1958. This marriage ultimately ended in divorce in 1975. He died on 18 October 2009.

After a long hiatus, Bergman did the movie Cactus Flower in 1969, with Walter Matthau and Goldie Hawn.

In 1972, U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy entered an apology into the Congressional Record for the attack made on Bergman 22 years earlier by Edwin C. Johnson. She was the President of the Jury at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.[17]
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Bergman became one of the elite actresses to receive three Oscars when she won her third (and first for Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Director Sidney Lumet offered Bergman the important part of Princess Dragomiroff, with which he felt she could win an Oscar. However, she insisted on playing the much smaller role of Greta Ohlsson, the old Swedish missionary. Lumet discussed Bergman's role:

    "She had chosen a very small part, and I couldn't persuade her to change her mind. She was sweetly stubborn. But stubborn she was... Since her part was so small, I decided to film her one big scene, where she talks for almost five minutes, straight, all in one long take. A lot of actresses would have hesitated over that. She loved the idea and made the most of it. She ran the gamut of emotions. I've never seen anything like it."[5]:246–247

With Liv Ullmann in Autumn Sonata (1978)

Bergman could speak Swedish (her native language), German (her second language, learned from her German mother and in school), English (learned when brought over to the United States), Italian (learned while living in Italy)[18] and French (her third language, learned in school). In addition, she acted in each of these languages at various times. Fellow actor John Gielgud, who had acted with her in Murder on the Orient Express and who had directed her in the play The Constant Wife, playfully mocked this ability when he remarked, "She speaks five languages and can't act in any of them."[19]

Although known chiefly as a film star, Bergman strongly admired the great English stage actors and their craft. She had the opportunity to appear in London's West End, working with such stage stars as Michael Redgrave in A Month in the Country (1965), Sir John Gielgud in The Constant Wife (1973) and Wendy Hiller in Waters of the Moon (1977–78).
Autumn Sonata (1978)
In A Woman Called Golda

In 1978, Bergman played in Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten) for which she received her 7th Academy Award nomination and made her final performance on the big screen. In the film, Bergman plays a celebrity pianist who travels to Norway to visit her neglected daughter, played by Liv Ullmann. The film was shot in Norway. It is considered by many to be among her best performances.[citation needed]

In 1979, Bergman hosted the AFI's Life Achievement Award Ceremony for Alfred Hitchcock.[20]
A Woman Called Golda (1982) – her final role

In 1982 she was offered the starring role in a television mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, about the late Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. It was to be her final acting role and she was honored posthumously with a second Emmy Award for Best Actress.

At first, she couldn't imagine herself acting the part of a well-known world figure whose physical appearance, especially her height, was so different from her own. Her daughter, Isabella, described Ingrid's surprise at being offered the part and the producer trying to explain to her, "People believe you and trust you, and this is what I want, because Golda Meir had the trust of the people." Isabella adds, "Now that was interesting to Mother." She was also persuaded that Golda was a "grand-scale person", one that people would assume was much taller than she actually was. Chandler notes that the role "also had a special significance for her, as during World War II, Ingrid felt guilty because she had so misjudged the situation in Germany."[5]:293

According to Chandler, "Ingrid's rapidly deteriorating health was a more serious problem. Insurance for Ingrid was impossible. Not only did she have cancer, but it was spreading, and if anyone had known how bad it was, no one would have gone on with the project." After viewing the series on TV, Isabella commented,

    "She never showed herself like that in life. In life, Mum showed courage. She was always a little vulnerable, courageous, but vulnerable. Mother had a sort of presence, like Golda, I was surprised to see it... When I saw her performance, I saw a mother that I'd never seen before—this woman with balls."[5]:290

Ingrid was frequently ill during the filming although she rarely complained or showed it. Four months after the filming was completed, she died. After Ingrid's death it was her daughter Pia who accepted her Emmy.[5]:296
Death and legacy
Ingrid Bergman's grave at Norra begravningsplatsen.

Bergman died in 1982 on her 67th birthday in London, following a long battle with breast cancer. Her body was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery, London and her ashes taken to Sweden, where most of her ashes were scattered in the sea around the islet of Dannholmen off the fishing village of Fjällbacka in Bohuslän, on the west coast of Sweden, where she spent most summers from 1958 to her death in 1982, and the rest placed next to her parents in Norra begravningsplatsen (Northern Cemetery), Stockholm, Sweden.

According to biographer Donald Spoto, she was "arguably the most international star in the history of entertainment." Acting in five languages, she was seen on stage, screen and television, and won three Academy Awards plus many others.[14] After her American film debut in the 1939 film Intermezzo: A Love Story, co-starring Leslie Howard, Hollywood saw her as a unique actress who was completely natural in style and without need of makeup. Film critic James Agee wrote that she "not only bears a startling resemblance to an imaginable human being; she really knows how to act, in a blend of poetic grace with quiet realism."[3]

Bergman was a tall, natural-looking, and intelligent Swedish actress, fluent in English. According to film historian David Thomson, she "always strove to be a 'true' woman", and many filmgoers identified with her:

    "There was a time in the early and mid-1940s when Bergman commanded a kind of love in America that has been hardly ever matched. In turn, it was the strength of that affection that animated the 'scandal' when she behaved like an impetuous and ambitious actress instead of a saint."[9]:76

Nonetheless, writing about her first years in Hollywood, Life magazine stated that "All Bergman vehicles are blessed", and "they all go speedily and happily, with no temperament from the leading lady."[6] She was "completely pleased" with her early career's management by David O. Selznick, who always found excellent dramatic roles for her to play, and equally satisfied with her salary, once saying, "I am an actress and I am interested in acting, not in making money." Life adds that "she has greater versatility than any actress on the American screen ... her roles have demanded an adaptability and sensitiveness of characterization to which few actresses could rise."[6]

She continued her acting career while fighting an eight-year battle with cancer, and won international honors for her final roles. "Her spirit triumphed with remarkable grace and courage", adds Spoto.[14] Director George Cukor once summed up her contributions to the film media when he said to her, "Do you know what I especially love about you, Ingrid, my dear? I can sum it up as your naturalness. The camera loves your beauty, your acting, and your individuality. A star must have individuality. It makes you a great star. A great star."[5]:11

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Bergman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6759 Hollywood Blvd.

Woody Guthrie wrote the erotic song "Ingrid Bergman" which references Bergman's relationship with Roberto Rosselini on the film "Stromboli". It was never recorded by Guthrie but, later found in the Woody Guthrie archives, it was put to music, and recorded, by Billy Bragg on the album Mermaid Avenue [21]

Bergman is mentioned in the song Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud) by The Beautiful South.
Autobiography

In 1980, Bergman's autobiography was published under the title Ingrid Bergman: My Story. It was written with the help of Alan Burgess, and in it she discusses her childhood, her early career, her life during her time in Hollywood, the Rossellini scandal and subsequent events. The book was written after her children warned her that she would only be known through rumors and interviews if she did not tell her own story. It was through this autobiography that her affair with Robert Capa became known.

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