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Bibi Andersson

Bibi Andersson was a Swedish stage and film actor whose career moved comfortably between the concentrated intimacy of Ingmar Bergman’s films, international productions and the Stockholm stage. Born in Stockholm on November 11, 1935, she began working on film sets as a teenager and studied at the Terserus Drama School and the Royal Dramatic Theatre School before joining the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Her long association with Bergman began in 1951, when she appeared in an advertisement he directed for the detergent Bris. Across the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Andersson starred in ten motion pictures and three television films under his direction. The run included The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician, Brink of Life, Persona, The Passion of Anna and The Touch. Persona gave Andersson one of her most demanding roles. As a nurse caring for Liv Ullmann’s mostly silent actress Elizabet Vogler, she carries most of the film’s dialogue, turning conversation into confession and psychological exposure. The performance earned her Best Actress at the fourth Guldbagge Awards. Earlier, she had shared the Best Actress prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival with Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck and Barbro Hiort af Ornäs for Brink of Life. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival for Vilgot Sjöman’s The Mistress. Andersson’s work extended well beyond Bergman. She appeared with James Garner and Sidney Poitier in Duel at Diablo, worked with John Huston on The Kremlin Letter and Robert Altman on Quintet, and co-starred with Steve McQueen in An Enemy of the People. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden became her best-known American film. Theatre remained an important part of her working life. Andersson made her American stage debut in Full Circle in 1973 and later directed several plays at Dramaten in Stockholm. Whether carrying the emotional weight of Persona or working within a larger ensemble, she brought a direct, alert presence to the screen. Andersson died in 2019.