Harriet Andersson

Harriet Andersson (born 14 February 1932) is a Swedish actress, best known outside Sweden for being part of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company. She often plays impulsive, working class characters.

Film actress

Harriet Andersson began her acting career as a 15-year-old student at Calle Flygare stage school. She joined director Ingmar Bergman for several stage productions at Malmö stadsteater between 1953 and 1956.

In a 2008 interview with Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, Andersson debunked a rumor that she was discovered by Bergman while working as an elevator operator: "In an elevator! Ha, that's a new one for me. No. I did operate an elevator, but that was when I was 14½! Ingmar did not discover me. I was discovered in 1949 in theater school. Before Monika, I had many small parts. Most of them were a little like Monika. I looked that way. I looked like a bad girl. But I wasn't a bad girl, really. I was a very nice little girl, until I found out what life was."

Bergman wrote the title role in Summer with Monika (1953), specifically for Andersson. Filmed in Sweden, the motion picture shows the romantic history of two disaffected youths from first meeting to a summer idyll followed by their hasty marriage and subsequent divorce.

Although the romantic relationship with Bergman was brief, they continued to work together. Andersson appeared in several of his best-known films, including Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Cries and Whispers (1972), and Fanny and Alexander (1982).