#Happy Birthday angel ✨️🕊

[kenneth-williams-diaries]

Kenneth Williams and Ingrid Bergman at a press reception in London on the occasion of their upcoming stage play of George Bernard Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" on 5 January 1971

24 February 1971

Ingrid is still doing some lines well and some lines badly ... it is because the lack of stage technique makes her her unable to sustain moments or comedy effects ... Nevertheless, I adore this woman and will forgive everything from someone who has her sweetness, radiance and generosity of spirit and who packs the theatre as she does. It is really marvellous to play to such houses.

11 June 1971

[...] I should think Bergman is the best person I've ever met who is an international star. I said to her in the wings 'You are being splendid tonight' & she said 'Yes, I'm in good voice too.' I said 'Yes, but the entrance was superb! So grand, so composed ... utterly serene' and she replied 'Well you know about actors - you can't just switch it on - some nights it all just goes right ...' It is true.

30 August 1982

[...] Went in to see her (Louisa, KW's mother) for meal at 5.30 and she told me 'Poor Ingrid Bergman is dead' and there was an item about her on the TV news, and a shot of her talking about Casablanca. She looked very altered from the '71 days when I worked with her. She died of cancer. [...]

1 September 1982

We saw the television tribute to Ingrid Bergman. It was staggering to see clips of her early films when she looked so radiantly beautiful, and then the later shots of her (during the illness) when the face aged so rapidly. The interviewer asked her 'Were you frightened when you found out you'd got cancer?' and for a tiny moment Ingrid's patience broke. 'Of course ... wouldn't you be frightened if you found that out about yourself?' Then the smile was resumed. I remember that dinner with her at the Garden in '71. I wrote in that diary how I'd said at the end of the evening 'You're the best person I've ever worked with' & she replied 'Oh my dear! There will be lots of others ...' There were not.

The Kenneth Williams Diaries

In memoriam INGRID BERGMAN ✨️

* 29 August 1915

✝︎ 29 August 1982

"You don't realise how much warmth, delight and love you bring into a room with you ..."