Ingmar Bergman Photo by: GUNNAR SEIJBOLD / AFP / Getty
Oscar Winner Ingmar Bergman Dies at Age 89 | Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman, a giant of world cinema whose poetic screen works about human desire and alienation forever inspired the serious work of Woody Allen and others, died in his native Sweden on Monday. He was 89.

In his 40-year career, Bergman made about 50 films – and made a star of his muse, actress Liv Ullmann.

His most popular film in America was 1982's epic family portrait Fanny and Alexander, though by then Bergman's reputation as the most serious of all international filmmakers was already a quarter-century old.

The towering achievements of Bergman's career, which brought three Best Foreign Language Picture Oscars and a 1971 Irving G. Thalberg Award to him, include The Seventh Seal, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, Cries and Whispers and – rare for the somber master – the light-hearted comedy about love, Smiles of a Summer Night, which Stephen Sondheim adapted into his Tony-winning Broadway musical A Little Night Music.

Ingmar Bergman in 1957 Photo by: SCANFOTO / AFP / Getty
Oscar Winner Ingmar Bergman Dies at Age 89| Tributes, Ingmar Bergman
Bergman came by his seriousness naturally: his father was a Lutheran minister who believed in strict discipline. Bergman later said he gave up believing in the church when he was 8 years old.

The filmmaker was married and divorced four times. His fifth and final wife, Ingrid von Rosen, died in 1995. In all, Bergman had nine children, including author Linn Ullmann, whose mother is Liv Ullmann.