Bibi Andersson


Berit Elisabet "Bibi" Andersson was a Swedish actress, best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She received numerous accolades for her work, including four Guldbagge Awards, and Best Actress Awards from both the Cannes and Berlin film festivals.

Early life and education

Andersson was born in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, the daughter of Karin, a social worker, and Josef Andersson, a businessman. She was the younger sister of Swedish film actress Gerd Andersson.
Her first collaboration with Ingmar Bergman came in 1951, when she participated in his production of an advertisement for the detergent Bris. She also worked as an extra on film sets as a teenager, and studied acting at the Terserus Drama School and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School. She then joined the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

Career

In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Andersson starred in 10 motion pictures and three television films directed by Bergman. With Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck and Barbro Hiort af Ornäs, she shared the Best Actress Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival for the director's Brink of Life, a film set in a maternity ward. The other films included The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician, The Passion of Anna, The Touch, and Persona.
In 1963, Andersson won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in Vilgot Sjöman's The Mistress.

From the mid-1960s onwards

Andersson's intense portrayal of a nurse in the film Persona – in which actress Elizabet Vogler, suffering from a psychosomatic condition, is mostly mute – involved her delivering the majority of the dialogue. For her performance in Persona, she won the award for Best Actress at the 4th Guldbagge Awards. That year, she was seen alongside James Garner and Sidney Poitier in the Western Duel at Diablo. More Bergman collaborations followed, and she worked with John Huston and Robert Altman. She was actor Steve McQueen's co-star in his only film with credit as a producer, a stage adaptation by Arthur Miller of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.
Andersson made her debut in American theatre in 1973 with a production of Erich Maria Remarque's Full Circle. Her most famous American film is I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, which also starred Kathleen Quinlan.
In 1990, Andersson worked as a theatre director in Stockholm, directing several plays at Dramaten. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she worked primarily in television and as a theatre actress, working with Bergman and others. She was also a supervisor for the Road to Sarajevo, a humanitarian project.

Honours

In 1996, Andersson published her autobiography, Ett ögonblick. She was married first to the director Kjell Grede with whom she had a daughter; and secondly to politician and writer Per Ahlmark. Andersson then married Gabriel Mora Baeza on 29 May 2004. In 2009, she had a stroke; an article published the following year says that from that time on she had been hospitalized and was unable to speak.

Death

Andersson died on 14 April 2019, aged 83 from complications of a stroke.

Legacy

, a minor planet discovered by Eric Walter Elst, is named after her.

Selected filmography

Andersson appeared in the following films:
  • Miss Julie as Dancing girl
  • U-Boat 39 as Girl on the train
  • The Beat of Wings in the Night as Student at Tornelius' party
  • Stupid Bom as Elvira
  • Sir Arne's Treasure as Berghild
  • A Night at Glimmingehus as Maj Månsson
  • The Girl in the Rain as Lilly
  • Smiles of a Summer Night
  • Egen ingång as Karin Johansson
  • Last Pair Out as Kerstin
  • The Seventh Seal as Mia / Mary - Jof's wife
  • Mr. Sleeman Is Coming as Anne-Marie
  • Summer Place Wanted as Mona Dahlström
  • Wild Strawberries as Sara / Hitchhiker
  • You Are My Adventure as Christina Blom
  • Brink of Life as Hjördis Petterson
  • Rabies as Eivor
  • The Magician as Sara Lindqvist
  • The Beloved Game as Lena
  • The Wedding Day as Sylvia Blom
  • The Devil's Eye as Britt-Marie
  • Karneval as Monika
  • Square of Violence as Maria
  • The Pleasure Garden as Anna, Fanny's Daughter
  • The Mistress as The Girl
  • Pan as Edvarda
  • All These Women as Humlan
  • Juninatt as Britt
  • Ön as Marianne
  • About Love as Woman at the aerodrome
  • My Sister, My Love as Charlotte / Sister
  • Duel at Diablo as Ellen Grange
  • Persona as Alma
  • Pardon, Are You for or Against? as Ingrid
  • Le viol as Marianne Séverin
  • The Girls as Liz Lindstrand
  • ' as Elin Pappila
  • ' as Jane Merrild / Alice Badram
  • Blow Hot, Blow Cold as Margit Lindmark
  • The Passion of Anna as Eva Vergérus / Self
  • The Kremlin Letter as Erika Kosnov
  • Story of a Woman as Karin Ullman
  • The Touch as Karin Vergerus
  • Chelovek s drugoy storony as Britt Stagnelius
  • '
  • Afskedens time as Elsa Jacobsen
  • Scenes from a Marriage as Katarina
  • ' as Blanche Huysman
  • It's Raining on Santiago as Monique Calvé
  • Blondie as Patricia Tauling
  • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden as Dr. Fried
  • An Enemy of the People as Catherine Stockmann
  • ' as Catherine Dumais
  • Quintet as Ambrosia
  • ' as Laura
  • The Concorde... Airport '79 as Francine
  • Barnförbjudet as The Mother
  • Marmalade Revolution as Anna-Berit
  • Jag rodnar as Siv Andersson
  • Exposed as Margaret
  • Svarta fåglar as Simone Cambral
  • A Hill on the Dark Side of the Moon as Ann-Charlotte Leffler
  • Sista leken as Viktor's Wife
  • Wallenberg: A Hero's Story as Maria 'Maj' Wallenberg
  • Huomenna as Singer
  • Poor Butterfly as Gertrud
  • Los dueños del silencio as Marie-Louise Wallén, Ambassador
  • Babette's Feast as Swedish Lady-in-Waiting
  • Creditors as Tekla
  • Una estación de paso as Lise
  • The Butterfly's Dream as La madre
  • Dreamplay as Victoria
  • Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sig as Solveig Olsson
  • Anna as Annas Mor
  • Elina: As If I Wasn't There as Tora Holm
  • The Lost Prince as Queen Alexandra
  • När mörkret faller as Svärmodern
  • Arn – The Knight Templar as Moder Rikissa
  • Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End as Moder Rikissa
  • The Frost as The Widow Rat