Liv Ullmann

Liv Ullmann

Liv Ullmann at Cannes in 2000.
Born Liv Johanne Ullmann
16 December 1938 (1938-12-16) (age 72)
Tokyo, Japan
Occupation Actress/Director
Years active 1957–present
Spouse Gappe Stang (1960-1965)
Donald Richard Saunders (1985-1995)[1]

Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the muses of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. A winner of the Golden Globe, Ullmann has also been nominated for the Palme d'Or, two times for the Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award.

Contents

Life

Ullmann was born in Tokyo, Japan, the daughter of Janna (née Lund) and Viggo Ullmann, an aircraft engineer who was working in Tokyo at the time.[1] Ullmann grew up in Trondheim, Norway. She lived in Canada as a child during World War II. She resides in Miami, Florida.

Career

She played lead in nine films by Bergman. She was the object of critical acclaim during the 1960s and 1970s (awards include three Best Actress prizes from the National Society of Film Critics, two from the National Board of Review, a threesome from the New York Film Critics Circle, and one Golden Globe as well as a LAFCA honor).

Her work with Bergman, especially in Scenes from a Marriage, turned her into a 1970s feminist and cultural icon, as well as one of the most respected actresses. In addition, her Nordic red-blond looks fit the 1970s vogue. Ullmann was nominated twice for an Academy Award (for The Emigrants and Face to Face), and published two autobiographies (Changing and Choices) while out of work in the late 1970s. At this time Ullmann appeared with Laurence Olivier in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977).

Two of Ullmann's flops were musical adaptations of classic works. The film version of Lost Horizon was a critical and commercial disaster, and the Broadway production of I Remember Mama underwent numerous revisions during a long preview period, then closed after 108 performances.

Ullmann has been a film director (notably with Bergman drama Faithless) and reprised her role from Scenes from a Marriage in 2003's Saraband, Bergman's final telemovie. Faithless was close to being awarded the Golden Palm and Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival, but it and the female lead (Swedish actress Lena Endre) lost out to Dancer in the Dark and Björk's performance in it.

Ullmann chaired the jury of Cannes Film Festival in 2002. She introduced her daughter, Linn Ullmann, to the audience with the words: "Here comes the woman whom Ingmar Bergman loves the most". Her daughter was about to receive the Prize of Honour on her famous father's behalf. In 2006 Ullmann gave up a dream of making a film based on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House". According to her, the Norwegian Film Fund worked against her and writer Kjetil Bjørnstad. Australian actress Cate Blanchett and British actress Kate Winslet were intended for lead roles in the movie.

Ullmann narrated the Canada/Norway co-produced animated short film The Danish Poet, which won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. She was the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Ullmann is currently directing actress Cate Blanchett in A Streetcar Named Desire (play) at the Sydney Theatre Company in Australia. The play's premiere will be in September 2009 and conclude in October 2009, and the production began on December 1, 2009 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the United States. She will direct the musical The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County[2], which based on a screenplay by John Mellencamp and Stephen King.[3]

Private life

In addition to Norwegian, Ullmann speaks Swedish, English and other European languages. She is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador[4] and has traveled widely for the organization. She is also co-founder and honorary chair of the Women's Refugee Commission. In 2005, King Harald V of Norway made Ullmann a Commander with Star of the Order of St Olav.[5] In 2006, she received a Ph.D. honoris causa from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.[6]

Ullmann has been married and divorced twice. Her first marriage was to Dr Hans Jacob Stang, a Norwegian psychiatrist, whom she divorced in 1965. According to her biographer, Ketil Bjørnstad, the marriage was marred by infidelities on both sides. In the 1980s, she married Boston real estate developer Donald Saunders, whom she divorced in 1995 even as the couple continued living together through 2007.[7]

She has one child, Linn Ullmann, fathered by Ingmar Bergman in 1966 while Ullmann was married to Stang. Ullmann has two grandchildren, a boy and a girl, of her daughter's two marriages.

Filmography

As actress

Year Film Role Notes
1962 Tonny Kari Entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival
1966 Persona Elisabet Vogler
1968 Shame Eva Rosenberg Guldbagge Award for Best Actress
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
Hour of the Wolf Alma Borg National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
1969 The Passion of Anna Anna Fromm
1971 The Emigrants Kristina Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
The Night Visitor Ester Jenks
1972 Cries and Whispers Maria (and her mother) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Pope Joan Pope Joan
1973 Scenes from a Marriage Marianne David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
40 Carats Ann Stanley Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Lost Horizon Katherine
1974 Zandy's Bride Hannah Lund
The Abdication Queen Kristina
1976 Face to Face Dr. Jenny Isaksson Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
National Board of Review Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1977 The Serpent's Egg Manuela Rosenberg
A Bridge Too Far Kate Ter Horst
1978 Autumn Sonata Eva David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
1984 The Bay Boy Mrs. Campbell
1987 Gaby: A True Story Sari
Farewell Moscow Ida Nudel David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress
1988 La amiga María San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actress
1989 The Rose Garden Gabriele Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1991 Mindwalk Sonia Hoffman
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes Narrator (voice)
1992 The Long Shadow Katherine
1994 Drømspel Ticket Seller
Zorn Emma Zorn (TV)
2003 Saraband Marianne (TV)
2006 The Danish Poet Narrator (voice)
2008 Through a Glass, Darkly Grandmother

As director

Year Film Notes
1992 Sofie Montreal World Film Festival Special Grand Prize of the Jury
Montreal World Film Festival Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Montreal World Film Festival Most Popular Film
1995 Kristin Lavransdatter[8] (from the novel by Sigrid Undset)
1996 Private Confessions Nominated — Chicago International Film Festival Gold Hugo
Screened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival[9]
2000 Faithless Amanda Ecumenical Film Award
Goya Award for Best European Film
Nominated – Palme d'Or, 2000 Cannes Film Festival[10]
Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director

References

Further reading

External links