Film Legend Ingmar Bergman Dies at 89

Ingmar Bergman, one of the great masters of modern cinema, died on July 30, 2007 at the age of 89. Born in Sweden to a Lutheran minister as Ernst Ingmar Bergman in 1918, was a Swedish film and stage director. From an extremely strict upbringing immersed in religious imagery and discussion, Ingmar Bergman is considered to be the Shakespeare or Rembrandt of film by historian and critic, Peter Cowie, and Woody Allen has said he is probably the greatest film artists since the invention of the motion picture camera.

Bergman is famous for movies such as Summer with Monica, The Virgin Spring, Persona, and Wild Strawberries in which an aging doctor is forced to reflect on his own mortality and through a series of disturbing dreams has to face that the choices he's made throughout his life have left him cold and hardened. Bergman had a talent for mixing the dream world and reality. Bergman lived most of his life on the Swedish island of Faro and in fact made most of his movies there.

In January 1976 he suffered a nervous breakdown and was subsequently hospitalized for deep depression when he was arrested for tax evasion. The charges were eventually dropped, but with deep anger for his homeland, he sentenced himself to a state of exile in Munich, Germany when he was released from the hospital. In 1978 he returned home and began directing in the Royal Dramatic Theatre again. An annual award for filmmaking in his name was awarded annually from the Swedish Film Institute in honor of Ingmar's return to Faro.

Bergman was married five times and produced eight children in total from these unions. All of his marriages, save his last, ended in divorce. His last wife, whom he married when their daughter was 12 years old, died of stomach cancer in 1995. He also had another child with Liv Ullmann, to whom he was not married. All of his acknowledged nine children were very talented in their own rights, most becoming actors, film directors and authors.

Three of Bergman's films have won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film: The Virgin Spring in 1961, Through A Glass Darkly in 1962 and Fanny and Alexander in 1984. Filmmakers all over the world have cited Bergman as an influence in their own work. His 1955 romantic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night gave him his first international attention was the inspiration of Stephen Sondheim's musical A Little Night Music. In addition to his film directing he has directed an extensive bit of stage productions and radio theatre.

Ingmar Bergman peacefully passed away on July 30, 2007 at his home in Faro, Gotland, Sweden. His work has touched everyone from film directors to audience members everywhere. He will be deeply missed.