Ingmar Bergman

Ernst ( in Swedish, but usually in English) (14 July 1918 - 30 July 2007) was a Swedish stage and movie director. Ingmar Bergman found bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his indelible explorations of the human condition. He is regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema.
Many filmmakers worldwide, including Americans Woody Allen and Robert Altman, the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and the Taiwanese director Ang Lee, have cited the work of Bergman as a major influence on their work.
Biography
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden to a Lutheran minister of Danish descent, Erik Bergman (later chaplain to the King of Sweden), and his wife, Karin (nee Akerblom). He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion. His father was a rather conservative parish minister and strict family father: Ingmar was locked up in dark closets for infractions such as wetting the bed. "While father preached away in the pulpit and the congregation prayed, sang or listened," Ingmar writes in his biography Laterna Magica,
"I devoted my interest to the church's mysterious world of low arches, thick walls, the smell of eternity, the colored sunlight quivering above the strangest vegetation of medieval paintings and carved figures on ceilings and walls. There was everything that one's imagination could desire -- angels, saints, dragons, prophets, devils, humans."
He performed two five-month stretches of mandatory military service and studied Art and Literature at Stockholm University College (the later Stockholm University), but without graduating. Instead, he developed an interest in theatre and later in cinema (though he had become a "genuine movie addict" by the early 1930s).
Although he grew up in a devout Lutheran household, Bergman stated that he lost his faith at age eight but came to terms with this fact only when making Winter Light.
From the early sixties, Bergman lived much of his life on the island of Faro, Gotland, Sweden, where he made a number of his movies. Bergman moved to Munich for a while following a protracted battle with the Swedish government over alleged tax evasion, and did not return to make another movie in Sweden until 1982, when he directed Fanny and Alexander. Bergman said this would be his last movie, and that he would go on to direct theater. Since that time he did make a number of movies for television, but later retired to Faro, stating in 2004 that he would never again leave the island.
Ingmar Bergman died at his home on Faro, in the early morning of 30 July 2007, aged 89, the same day that another great movie director, Michelangelo Antonioni, died.
Family
Bergman was married five times:
25 March 1943 - 1945, to Else Fisher, choreographer and dancer (divorced). Children:
Lena Bergman, actress, born 1943.
22 July 1945 - 1950, to Ellen Lundstrom, choreographer and movie director (divorced). Children:
Eva Bergman, film director, born 1945,
Jan Bergman, film director (1946-2000), and
twins Mats and Anna Bergman, both actors and movie directors and born in 1948.
1951 - 1959, to Gun Grut, journalist (divorced). Children:
Ingmar Bergman Jr, airline captain, born 1951.
1959 - 1969, to Kabi Laretei, concert pianist (divorced). Children:
Daniel Bergman, movie director, born 1962.
11 November 1971 - 20 May 1995, to Ingrid von Rosen (maiden name Karlebo) (widowed). Children:
Maria von Rosen, author, born 1959.
The first four marriages ended in divorce. The last ended when his wife Ingrid died of stomach cancer in 1995, aged 65. Aside from his marriages, Bergman had romantic relationships with actresses Harriet Andersson (1952-55), Bibi Andersson (1955-59), and Liv Ullmann (1965-70). He was the father of writer Linn Ullmann with Liv Ullmann. In all, Bergman had nine children, one of whom died before him.