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Ingrid Bergman

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In 1949, Bergman abandoned her Swedish dentist husband and their daughter, Pia Lindstrom, to run away to Italy with neorealist director Roberto Rossellini. When their out-of-wedlock baby Robertino was near arrival, the hysterical headlines trumped Truman's announcement of the invention of the H-bomb, and Colorado senator Edwin C. Johnson, after admitting Bergman had once been his favorite actress, denounced her from the floor of the Senate, calling her ''Hollywood's apostle of degradation,'' ''a free-love cultist,'' and a ''powerful influence for evil.''

''All things great actresses do are forgiven,'' Ernest Hemingway told her -- and indeed this thing was as well. After six years of making Rossellini films and babies (including future actress Isabella, born in 1952), Bergman returned to American movies playing the putative heir to the Russian throne in Anastasia, and she was sitting in a Paris bathtub in 1957 when she heard her dear old friend for many a year, Cary Grant, accept her Best Actress award over the radio. Her Notorious and Indiscreet costar also introduced her when she returned to the Oscars in 1959 to present Gigi with Best Picture honors. The standing ovation that met her was as thunderous as any in Oscar history. ''It is so heartwarming to receive such a welcome,'' she said. ''I feel that I am home.''

Originally posted Feb 06, 2004 Published in issue #749-750 Feb 06, 2004 Order article reprints
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