Gloria Swanson(1899-1983)
- Actress
- Producer
- Costume Designer
Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in Chicago,
Illinois. She was destined to be perhaps one of the
biggest stars of the silent movie era. Her personality and antics in
private definitely made her a favorite with America's movie-going
public. Gloria certainly didn't intend on going into show business.
After her formal education in the Chicago school system and elsewhere,
she began work in a department store as a salesclerk. In 1915, at the
age of 18, she decided to go to a Chicago movie studio with an aunt to
see how motion pictures were made. She was plucked out of the crowd,
because of her beauty, to be included as a bit player in the film
The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). In her next film, she was an extra also, when she appeared in
At the End of a Perfect Day (1915). After another uncredited role, Gloria got a more substantial
role in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). In 1916, she first appeared with future husband
Wallace Beery. Once married, the two pulled up stakes in Chicago and moved to
Los Angeles to the film colony of Hollywood. Once out west, Gloria
continued her torrid pace in films. She seemed to be in hit after hit
in such films as The Pullman Bride (1917), Shifting Sands (1918), and Don't Change Your Husband (1919). By the time of the
latter, Gloria had divorced Beery and was remarried, but it was not to
be her last marriage, as she collected a total of six husbands. By
the middle 1920s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. It has
been said that Gloria made and spent over $8 million in the '20s alone.
That, along with the six marriages she had, kept the fans spellbound
with her escapades for over 60 years. They just couldn't get enough of
her. Gloria was 30 when the sound revolution hit, and there was
speculation as to whether she could adapt. She did. In 1928, she
received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role of Sadie
Thompson in the film of the same name but lost to Janet Gaynor for 3 different films.
The following year, she again was nominated for the same award in
The Trespasser (1929). This time, she lost out to Norma Shearer in The Divorcee (1930). By the 1930s,
Gloria pared back her work with only four films during that time. She
had taken a hiatus from film work after 1934's Music in the Air (1934) and would not be
seen again until Father Takes a Wife (1941). That was to be it until 1950, when she
starred in Sunset Blvd. (1950) as Norma Desmond opposite William Holden. She played a
movie actress who was all but washed up. The movie was a box office
smash and earned her a third Academy Award nomination as Best Actress,
but she lost to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (1950). The film is considered one of the
best in the history of film and, on June 16, 1998, was named one of the
top 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute, placing 12th.
After a few more films in the 1950s, Gloria more or less retired.
Throughout the 1960s, she appeared mostly on television. Her last fling
with the silver screen was Airport 1975 (1974), wherein she played herself. Gloria
died on April 4, 1983, in New York City at the age of 84. There was
never anyone like her, before or since.
