FACTBOX: Ingmar Bergman - his life and times

(Reuters) - Swedish director Ingmar Bergman died on Monday at the age of 89.

Bergman sought to exorcise a traumatic childhood through works whose major themes were sexual torment and the search for the meaning of life. Bergman's work encompassed 54 films, 126 theatre productions and 39 radio plays.

Here are some key facts on his life and times:

* EARLY LIFE

-- Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born on July 14, 1918, in the Swedish university town of Uppsala. His father, a Lutheran minister who became chaplain to the king of Sweden, humiliated and caned the young Bergman, a sickly child.

-- Bergman began his career as a script writer and at one time directed soap commercials to escape unemployment.

-- His break into the international world of film came in 1955 with "Smiles of a Summer Night", a sophisticated comedy of manners set in turn-of-the-century Sweden. It won a prize for best comedy at the 1956 Cannes film festival.

* RECOGNITION :

-- He gained international recognition with the film "The Seventh Seal", set in the Middle Ages, in which a crusader searching for God and the meaning of life plays chess with death. It won the jury prize at the 1957 Cannes film festival.