Isabella Rossellini — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

The daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini became the face of Lancôme for decades, then carved a second career in American art-house cinema — most memorably as the torch singer trapped in David Lynch's velvet-curtained nightmare.

Biography

About

Isabella Rossellini was born in Rome on 18 June 1952 to Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini. After a brief 1976 acting debut in A Matter of Time, she rose to fame as a Lancôme model, a role that defined her public image through the '80s and '90s. Her breakthrough as an actress came in 1986 with Blue Velvet, David Lynch's psychosexual thriller, which earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She followed with roles in Wild at Heart, Fearless, Big Night, and a memorable turn in Death Becomes Her, building a reputation in both American indepe…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini

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…I have not even been nominated for one. But it doesn’t affect me any more.

— On how she never won an Oscar like her mother Ingrid in “Isabella Rossellini: ‘Ageing brings a lot of happiness. You get fatter – but there

Isabella Rossellini

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Women executives have a different sensitivity. Male executives only understood makeup or fashion as an instrument of seduction, because that was addressed to them.

— On being asked to be the face of Lancôme after being fired by a male executive decades earlier in “Isabella Rossellini: ‘Ageing brings a

Isabella Rossellini

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I’m not there now to represent beauty; I’m there to represent a different dream. It may be defined as joyfulness; life goes on and there are many chapters.

— On what she feels like she symbolizes now for Lancôme in “Isabella Rossellini: ‘Ageing brings a lot of happiness. You get fatter – but

Isabella Rossellini

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