Movies - TV
The Controversy That Caused Ingrid Bergman To Leave Hollywood
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
Celebrated film star Ingrid Bergman, most famously known for her role in “Casablanca”, worked in films all over the world until she passed away at the age of 67. Her personal life was as dramatic as some of her films, though, most notoriously the scandal that centered around the 1950 film “Stromboli”.
During filming, Bergman and director Roberto Rossalini began their love affair which resulted in a pregnancy while Bergman was still married to her first husband, Petter Lindström. This affair caused a great scandal at the time of the release of “Stromboli”, with church groups calling for a ban of the critically-acclaimed film.
After Bergman gave birth to their first child, she was able to secure a divorce from Lindström in Mexico ,where she also married Rossellini. The "Stromboli" scandal also attracted the attention of a Colorado senator named Edwin C. Johnson, who declared Bergman "had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage."
Johnson even proposed legislation, that did not pass, to ban films based on the moral standing of those who made them, but his words were enough to give Bergman the impetus to flee the U.S. for a spell. From 1950 to 1955, Bergman lived essentially in exile from America, but by 1956, it seemed the heat was off, and Bergman returned to Hollywood to star in mainstream films until her retirement.