Berit Elisabet Andersson (11 November 1935 – 14 April 2019), known professionally as Bibi Andersson(Swedish: [²bɪbːɪ ²anːdɛˌʂɔn]), was a Swedish actress, best known for her frequent collaborations with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.

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Youth

Andersson was born in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, the daughter of Karin (née Mansion), a social worker, and Josef Andersson, a businessman. She studied acting at the Terserus Drama School and at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School in Stockholm.

She then joined the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, with which she was associated for 30 years. Her first collaboration with Ingmar Bergman was in 1951, when she participated in his production of an advertisement for the detergent "Bris". In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, she starred in eleven Bergman-directed pictures, including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Brink of Life, The Magician, The Passion of Anna, The Touch, and Persona.

Later career

In 1963 at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival, Andersson won the Silver Bear for Best Actress award for her role in Vilgot Sjöman's film The Mistress.

Her intense portrayal of the nurse Alma in the 1966 film, Persona, led to an increase in the number of cinematic roles offered her, and she appeared that same year opposite James Garner and Sidney Poitier in the violent western, Duel at Diablo. For her role in Persona, she won the award for Best Actress at the 4th Guldbagge Awards. More Bergman collaborations followed, and she also worked with John Huston (The Kremlin Letter: 1970)[ and Robert Altman (Quintet: 1979). She 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 (1977), that also starred Kathleen Quinlan.

In 1990, she worked as a theatre director in Stockholm, directing several plays at Dramaten. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Andersson worked primarily in television and as a theatre actress, working with Bergman among others. She was also a supervisor for the humanitarian project Road to Sarajevo.

Personal life

In 1996, she published her autobiography Ett ögonblick (A Moment, or, literally, A Blink of the Eye). She was married first to the director Kjell Grede (1960, divorced) with whom she had a daughter, and, secondly, to the politician and writer Per Ahlmark (1978, divorced). Andersson then married Gabriel Mora Baeza on 29 May 2004. In 2009 she had a stroke. An article from 2010 says that since she had been hospitalized, she was unable to speak.

Andersson died on 14 April 2019 at the age of 83.

Filmography

Andersson appeared in the following films:

• Miss Julie (1951)
• Ubåt 39 [sv] (1952)
• Dumbom [sv] (1953)
• Vingslag i natten [sv] (1953)
• A Night at Glimmingehus (1954)
• Herr Arnes penningar [sv] (1954)
• Flickan i regnet [sv] (1955)
• Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
• Last Pair Out (1956)
• Egen ingång (1956)
• The Seventh Seal (1957)
• Mr. Sleeman Is Coming (1957)
• Wild Strawberries (1957)
• Summer Place Wanted (1957)
• You Are My Adventure (1958)
• Brink of Life (1958)
• Rabies (1958)
• The Magician (1958)
• Den kära leken [sv] (1959)
• The Devil's Eye (1960)
• Bröllopsdagen [sv] (1960)
• The Pleasure Garden (1961)
• The Mistress (1962)
• Square of Violence (1963)
• All These Women (1964)
• Ön (1966)
• My Sister, My Love (1966)
• Duel at Diablo (1966)
• Persona (1966)
• Pardon, Are You for or Against? (1966)
• Black Palm Trees [sv] (1968)
• The Girls (1968)
• Blow Hot, Blow Cold (1969)
• The Passion of Anna (1969)
• The Kremlin Letter (1970)
• Story of a Woman (1970)
• The Touch (1971)
• The Man from the Other Side [sv] (1971)
• Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
• La Rivale [fr] (1974)
• It's Raining on Santiago (1975)
• Blondy (1976)
• I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
• An Enemy of the People (1978)
• L'Amour en question [fr] (1978)
• Quintet (1979)
• Twice a Woman [nl] (1979)
• The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979)
• Marmalade Revolution (1980)
• Exposed (1983)
• A Hill on the Dark Side of the Moon (1983)
• Sista leken (1984)
• Wallenberg: A Hero's Story (1985) (TV)
• Poor Butterfly (1986)
• Babette's Feast (1987)
• Creditors (1988)
• Dreamplay (1994)
• The Butterfly's Dream (1994)
• Elina: As If I Wasn't There (2002)
• The Lost Prince (2003) (TV)
• Arn – The Knight Templar (2007)

Awards

• 2006: Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award