For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) gave Ingrid Bergman her first Academy Award nomination, as Maria, a young Spanish woman who joins a group of guerrilla fighters during the Spanish Civil War.
Based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel, the film follows Maria and Robert Jordan, played by Gary Cooper, as they fall in love against the backdrop of war. Bergman played Maria with a quiet strength, and her cropped hair and direct gaze became part of the film’s image.
The role showed Bergman’s ability to carry a large, serious drama. Maria’s courage and tenderness made the film’s tragic ending all the more moving.
Image: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergman_%26_Bogart_Casablanca_still.jpg