Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, to a Lutheran minister of Danish descent, Erik Bergman (later chaplain to the King of Sweden), and his wife, Karin. He grew up surrounded by religious imagery and discussion and had a strict upbringing.

Bergman states that he lost his faith at age eight but came to terms with this fact only when making the film Winter Light.

Bergman's films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylised. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde.

His earlier films are carefully structured, and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman states that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intentions, he would let them, noting that the results were often "disastrous" when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue.

Bergman began working with Sven Nykvist, his cinematographer, in 1953. The two of them developed and maintained a working relationship of sufficient rapport to allow Bergman not to worry about the composition of a shot until the day before it was filmed.

On the morning of the shoot, he would briefly speak to Nykvist about the mood and composition he hoped for, and then leave Nykvist to work without interruption or comment until post-production discussion of the next day's work.

Bergman encourages young directors not to direct any film that does not have a "message," but to wait until one comes along that does, yet admits that he himself is not always sure of the message of some of his films.

In 2003, Bergman, at 84 years old, directed a new film, Saraband that represents a departure from his previous works.

Although Bergman is universally famous for his contribution to cinema, he has been an active and productive stage director all his life, and has been manager and director of a number of the most prestigious theatres in Sweden, notably the Malmö city theatre in the 1950s and the Stockholm Royal Dramatic Theatre (the national stage of Sweden; executive director there 1963-66 and active as stage director into the 1990s) as well as the Residenz-Theater of Munich, Germany (1977-84).

In 1971, Bergman received The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards ceremony. Three of his films have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Virgin Spring in 1961; Through a Glass Darkly in 1962; and Fanny and Alexander in 1984.

Many filmmakers worldwide, including Americans Woody Allen and Robert Altman, and Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, have cited the work of Bergman as a major influence on their work.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent