Bergman, named after Princess Ingrid of Sweden, was born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 29, 1915 to a Swedish father, Justus Samuel Bergman, and a German mother, Friedel Adler Bergman. When she was three years old, her mother died. Her father passed away when she was thirteen. She was then sent to live with an aunt, who died of heart complications only six months later. Afterwards she was raised by another aunt and uncle, who had five children.

At the age of 17, Ingrid Bergman auditioned for and was accepted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. During her first summer break, she was hired at a Swedish film studio, which consequently led to her leaving the Royal Dramatic Theater to work in films full time, after having attended for only one year. Her first film role after leaving the Royal Dramatic Theater was a small part in 1935's Munkbrogreven.

On July 10, 1937, at the age of 21, she married a dentist, Petter Lindström. On September 20, 1938, she gave birth to a daughter, Pia Lindström.

After a dozen films in Sweden and one in Germany, Die vier Gesellen (1938), Bergman was signed by Hollywood producer David O. Selznick to star in the 1939 English language remake of her 1936 Swedish language film, Intermezzo. According to Bergman's A&E Biography, Selznick suggested she change her name, have her teeth capped, and her eyebrows plucked, but Ingrid was having none of it. Taken aback by her reply, Selznick changed his mind, allowing Ingrid to keep all her real features and her real name. Intermezzo was an enormous success and Bergman became a star, described as "Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood". Some things that set her apart from other female stars in Hollywood at that time were that she did not change her name, her appearance was entirely natural with little to no makeup, and that she was one of the tallest leading ladies.

After completing one last film in Sweden and appearing in three moderately successful films in the United States, Bergman joined Humphrey Bogart in the 1942 classic film Casablanca, which remains her best-known role. Bergman did not consider Casablanca to be one of her favorite performances. That same year, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), which was also her first color film. The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Gaslight (1944). She received a third consecutive nomination for Best Actress with her performance as a nun in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).

Later, she would receive another Best Actress nomination for Joan of Arc (1948), an independent film produced by Walter Wanger. Bergman had championed the role since her arrival in Hollywood, which is one of the reasons she had played it on the Broadway stage in Maxwell Anderson's Joan of Lorraine.

Bergman starred in the Alfred Hitchcock films Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949). Unlike her earlier Hitchcock films, Under Capricorn was a slow-paced costume drama, slow to such a degree that Bergman's reputation and the film's release suffered from this. Coincidentally, it was his role in Spellbound, of which she was a star, that he received his only nomination for an Academy Award.

In 1949, Bergman met Italian director Roberto Rossellini in order to make the film Stromboli (1950), after having been a fan of two of his previous films that she had seen while in the United States. During the making of this movie, she fell in love with him and became pregnant with a son, Renato Roberto Giusto Giuseppe ("Robin") Rossellini.

Ingrid Bergman married Roberto Rossellini on May 24, 1950. On June 18, 1952, she gave birth to twin daughters, Isabella Rossellini who is a famous actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini, a professor of Italian Literature. Over the next few years, she appeared in several Italian films for Rossellini, including Giovanna d'Arco al rogo (Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, Joan of Arc at the Stake, 1954), a 1935 dramatic oratorio by Arthur Honegger about Joan of Arc. Their marriage ended in divorce on November 7, 1957.

After separating from Rossellini, she starred in Jean Renoir's Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes, 1956), a romantic comedy where she played a Polish princess caught in political intrigue. Although the film wasn't a success, it has since come to be regarded as one of her best performances.

With her starring role in 1956's Anastasia, Bergman made a triumphant return to the American screen and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for a second time. The award was accepted for her by her friend Cary Grant. Bergman would not make her first post-scandal public appearance in Hollywood until the 1958 Academy Awards, when she was the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Picture. Furthermore, after being introduced by Cary Grant and walking out on stage to present, she was given a standing ovation.

Bergman would continue to alternate between performances in American and European films for the rest of her career and also made occasional appearances in television dramas such as a 1959 production of The Turn of the Screw for Startime for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress.

Bergman received her third Academy Award (and first for Best Supporting Actress) for her performance in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), but she publicly declared at the Academy Awards telecast that year that the award rightfully belonged to Italian actress Valentina Cortese for Day for Night by concluding her acceptance speech with "Please forgive me, Valentina. I didn't mean to."

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ingrid Bergman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6759 Hollywood Blvd. She continues to be a cultural icon — not only for her role in Casablanca, but for her career as a whole and for her innocent, natural beauty. In addition, she is considered by many to be one of the foremost actresses of the 20th century.