Elisabeth Bergner was the daughter of merchant Emil Ettel and his wife Anna Rosa Wagner. She grew up in Vienna and made her theatre debut in Innsbruck in 1915. The next year, she obtained a contract in Zürich, where she played Ophelia alongside Alexander Moissi, who fell in love with her.
She continued her career in Vienna and Munich before moving to Berlin in 1921, where she became a popular actress and worked with Max Reinhardt. During this time, she was often helped by poet and critic Albert Ehrenstein, whom she called Xaverl, and with whom she had a complicated relationship.
Bergner made her film debut in Der Evangelimann (1924) and went on to work with director Paul Czinner, with whom she had a personal and professional relationship. Her most successful silent film was Fräulein Else (1929).
After the Nazis came to power, Bergner and Czinner emigrated to Vienna and then London, where they were married. She learned English and continued her career, becoming friendly with G.B. Shaw and J.M. Barrie.
Bergner sent much of her money to relatives and friends in need, including Ehrenstein, and was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Escape Me Never (1935). She also appeared in The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934),which was forbidden in Germany.
In London, Bergner worked on Broadway and was very successful in The Two Mrs. Carrolls. She befriended a young aspiring actress, Martina Lawrence, but eventually broke with her after Lawrence became over-interested in Bergner's life.
Bergner later recounted this story to her friend Mary Orr, a writer, who turned it into the short story "The Wisdom of Eve", which was the basis for the movie All About Eve (1950).
After the war, Bergner worked in New York for a few years before returning to England in 1950. She gave acclaimed Bible readings in Israel in English, German, and Hebrew, and resumed her stage career in Germany.
In 1959, she stunned audiences and critics in Berlin with her performance in Geliebter Lügner, a German version of Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar. She returned to the movies in 1961 and made her directorial debut in 1970.
Her last stage appearance took place in 1973, and she published a volume of her memoirs in 1978. She received the Ernst Lubitsch Prize in 1979 and the Eleonora Duse Prize in 1982.
