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 Cannes Film Festival">Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress">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 Berlin International Film Festival">Silver Bear for Best Actress">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 Guldbagge [Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|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 (1978 film)|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 (film)|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

Personal life

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 ElviraSir Arne's Treasure as BerghildA Night at Glimmingehus as Maj MånssonThe Girl in the Rain as LillySmiles of a Summer Night Egen ingång as Karin JohanssonLast Pair Out as KerstinThe Seventh Seal as Mia / Mary - Jof's wifeMr. Sleeman Is Coming as Anne-MarieSummer Place Wanted as Mona DahlströmWild Strawberries as Sara / HitchhikerYou Are My Adventure as Christina BlomBrink of Life as Hjördis PettersonRabies as EivorThe Magician as Sara LindqvistThe Beloved Game as LenaThe Wedding Day as Sylvia BlomThe Devil's Eye as Britt-MarieKarneval as MonikaSquare of Violence as MariaThe Pleasure Garden as Anna, Fanny's DaughterThe Mistress as The GirlPan as EdvardaAll These Women as HumlanJuninatt as BrittÖn as MarianneAbout Love as Woman at the aerodromeMy Sister, My Love as Charlotte / SisterDuel at Diablo as Ellen GrangePersona as AlmaPardon, Are You for or Against? as IngridLe viol as Marianne SéverinThe Girls as Liz Lindstrand' as Elin Pappila