Inspirational Icon Monday: Ingrid Bergman

Not only was Igrid Bergman a Hitchcock heroine, but she also was one of many women to fall victim to breast cancer. Her roles in some of Halloween's thrillers as well as her real life role as an important reminder that we still need a cure for breast cancer, Bergman makes the perfect icon.

Winner of three Academy Awards, Bergman starred in such classics as Casablanca (I actually bought a plane ticket to Casablanca while in Paris because I loved this movie so much...I don't recommend going as a single woman alone), For Whom the Bells Toll, Murder on the Orient Express, and Hitchcock's Spellbound, Notorious and Under Capricorn. Her soft beauty, intelligence (besides English she spoke Swedish, German, Italian and French), and captivating vulnerability radiated on screen. Although she struggled in love with three failed marriages, she was a devoted mother and known for being a kind soul on set.

Director of Murder on the Orient Express, Sidney Lumet, said of Bergman, "She was sweetly stubborn." This stubborness must have helped her continue acting while dying from breast cancer. She continued to live and do what she loved and although the cancer spread rapidly, she was said to have rarely complained.

Bergman died from this all too common of a disease at age 67, but women of all ages and family history can be prone to its destruction. I should know. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26. I've had three surgeries, two years of chemotherapy, radiation and Herceptin treatments, and five years of Tomaxifen pills. No one in my family has ever had breast cancer. If it could happen to the beautiful starlet Ingrid Bergman and it could happen to a young woman like myself, then it could happen to anyone. This disease took the life of Bergman, but fairly early detection saved my life. To all you lovely ladies out there: while you're watching your Hitchcock/ Bergman marathon, make sure you give yourself a self examination to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

My version of Ingrid Bergman's look above--sweet and lady like. Velvet black top; H&M plaid circle skirt; black and gold vintage belt; black and gold vintage box purse.