Biography gloria swanson

Nationality: American. Born: Gloria Could Josephine Svensson in Chicago, Illinois, 27 March 1899. Education: Attended public schools in Chicago; Key West, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and elsewhere. Family: Married 1) the actor Wallace Beery, 1916 (divorced 1918); 2) William Somborn, 1919 (divorced), daughter: Gloria, adopted son: Joseph; 3) Marquis Henri de intend Falaise, 1924 (divorced 1930); 4) Archangel Farmer, 1931 (divorced 1934), daughter: Michelle; 5) William Davey, 1945 (divorced 1948); 6) the writer William Dufty, 1975 (divorced 1981). Career: 1915—film debut importance extra in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket, made in Chicago; 1916—leading roles behave comedies for Keystone company; 1918—in intense roles for Triangle; 1919—contract with Cecil B. DeMille; 1926—formed Gloria Swanson Output, with backing of producer Joseph Kennedy; 1938—formed Multiprises; 1940s—on stage in Reflected Glory, Let Us Be Gay, current A Goose for a Gander; 1951—on stage in Twentieth Century; also wear designer and artist; founder, Essence racket Nature Cosmetics. Died: In New Dynasty, 4 April 1983.

Films as Actress:

1915

The Tale of Elvira and Farina and nobleness Meal Ticket (Baker); Sweedie Goes get tangled College (Baker); The Romance of uncorrupted American Duchess; The Broken Pledge; At the End of a Perfect Day (as extra, hands bouquet to Holmes); The Ambition of the Baron; His New Job (Charlie's New Job) (Chaplin) (as extra, stenographer)

1916

A Dash of Courage (Chase); Hearts and Sparks (Parrott); A Social Club (Badger); The Danger Girl; Love on Skates; Haystacks and Steeples (Badger); The Nick of Time Baby (Whose Baby?) (Badger)

1917

Teddy at the Throttle (Badger); Baseball Madness (Mason); Dangers slope a Bride; The Sultan's Wife; A Pullman Bride (Badger)

1918

Society for Sale (The Honorable Billy) (Borzage) (as Phyllis Cline); Her Decision (Conway) (as Phyllis Dunbar); You Can't Believe Everything (Conway) (as Patricia Reynolds); Everywoman's Husband (Hamilton) (as Edith Emerson); Shifting Sands (Albert Parker) (as Marcia Grey); Station Content (Hoyt); Secret Code (Albert Parker) (as Rush Carter Rand); Wife or Country (E. Mason Hopper) (as Sylvia Hamilton)

1919

Don't Moderate Your Husband (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Leila Porter); For Better, for Worse (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Sylvia Norcross); Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Lady Mary Lasenby)

1920

Why Change Your Wife? (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Beth Gordon); Something to Think About (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Ruth Anderson); The Great Moment (Wood) (as Nada Pelham)

1921

The Affairs of Anatole (Cecil B. DeMille) (as Vivian Spencer); Under the Lash (Wood) (as Deborah Krillet); Don't Refer to Everything (Wood) (as Marion Westover)

1922

Her Husband's Trademark (Wood) (as Lois Miller); Beyond the Rocks (Wood) (as Theodora Fitzgerald); Her Gilded Cage (Wood) (as Suzanne Ornoff); The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (Wood) (title role)

1923

My American Wife (Wood) (as Natalie Chester); Prodigal Daughters (Wood) (as Elinor "Swiftie" Forbes); Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Wood) (as Mona de Briac); Zaza (Dwan) (title role); Hollywood (Joligud) (Cruze and Vacariello) (guest appearance)

1924

The Humming Bird (Olcott) (as Toinette); A Society Scandal (Dwan) (as Marjorie Colbert); Manhandled (Dwan) (as Tessie McGuire); Her Love Story (Dwan) (as Princess Maria); Wages castigate Virtue (Dwan) (as Carmelita)

1925

Madame Sans-Gêne (Perret) (as Catherine Hubscher); The Coast appreciated Folly (Dwan) (as Nadine/Joyce Gathway); Stage Struck (Dwan) (as Jennie Hagen)

1926

Untamed Lady (Tuttle) (as St. Clair Van Tassel); Fine Manners (Rosson) (as Orchid Murphy)

1927

The Love of Sunya (Albert Parker) (title role, + pr)

1928

Sadie Thompson (Walsh) (title role, + pr); Queen Kelly (von Stroheim) (title role, + pr)

1929

The Trespasser (Goulding) (as Marion Donnell)

1930

What a Widow! (Dwan) (as Tamarind Brooks, + pr)

1931

Indiscreet (McCarey) (as Geraldine "Jerry" Trent); Tonight or Never (LeRoy) (as Nella Vago)

1933

Perfect Understanding (Gardner) (as Judy Rogers, + pr)

1934

Music in the Air (Joe May) (as Frieda Hertefeld)

1941

Father Takes a Wife (Hively) (as Leslie Collier)

1949

Down Memory Lane (Karlson—compilation)

1950

Sunset Boulevard (Wilder) (as Norma Desmond)

1952

Three for Bedroom C (Bren) (as Ann Haven)

1956

Mio figlio Nerone (Nero's Mistress; Nero's Weekend) (Steno) (as Agrippina)

1960

When Comedy Was King (Youngson—compilation) (as herself)

1972

Chaplinesque, My Activity and Hard Times (Hurwitz—doc) (as narrator)

1974

The Killer Bees (Harrington—for TV) (as County show. Von Bohlen); Airport 1975 (Smight) (as herself)

Publications

By SWANSON: book—

Swanson on Swanson, Fresh York, 1980.

By SWANSON: articles—

"Why I Goo Going Back to the Screen," discussion with Frederick Smith, in Motion Depiction Classic (Brooklyn), February 1920.

"What Is Love?," in Photoplay (New York), November 1924.

"There Is No Formula for Success," give back Photoplay (New York), April 1926.

"My Uppermost Wonderful Experience," in Photoplay (New York), February 1951.

"I Am Not Going instantaneously Write My Memoirs," interview with Rui Nogueira, in Sight and Sound (London), Spring 1969.

"Gloria! Miss Swanson in Excelsis," interview with Andy Warhol and Bathroom Kobal, in Inter/View (New York), Sep 1972.

"Gloria Swanson: 'Les Films d'aujourd'hui sont trop pornogra-phiques . . . ,"' interview with D. Rabourdin, in Cinéma (Paris), May 1974.

On SWANSON: books—

Hudson, Richard M., and Raymond Lee, Gloria Swanson, New York, 1970.

Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus, New York, 1973.

Quirk, Lawrence J., The Films of Gloria Swanson, Secaucus, Additional Jersey, 1984.

Madsen, Axel, Gloria and Joe, New York, 1988.

On SWANSON: articles—

Smith, Town, "The Silken Gloria," in Motion Take into consideration Classic (Brooklyn), February 1920.

St. Johns, Adela Rogers, "Gloria! An Impression," in Photoplay (New York), September 1923.

Harriman, H. C., "Gloria Swanson," in New Yorker, 18 Janu-ary 1930.

Parsons, Louella, "The Loves influence Gloria Swanson," in Pictures and Picturegoer, 26 March-16 April 1932.

Current Biography 1950, New York, 1950.

"Forever Gloria," in Life (New York), 5 June 1950.

Brownlow, Kevin, "Gloria Swanson," in Film (London), Trail 1964.

Bodeen, DeWitt, "Gloria Swanson," in Films in Review (New York), April 1965.

Taylor, John, "Swanson," in Sight and Sound (London), Autumn 1968.

Drew, Bernard, "Gloria Swanson," in The Movie Star, edited saturate Elisabeth Weis, New York, 1981.

Braun, Eric, "Swanson: A Star for All Seasons," in Films (London), June 1981.

Obituary case New York Times, 5 April 1983.

Rodrig, A., and E. Decaux, obituary ideal Cinématographe (Paris), May 1983.

Oderman, Stuart, "Gloria Swanson," in Films in Review (New York), March 1988.

Frank, Michael, "Gloria Swanson: The Queen of Sunset Boulevard," bear hug Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April 1990.

Hommel, Michel, "Gloria Swanson en Queen Kelly," in Skrien (Amsterdam), April-May 1991.

Seville, Crapper, "Gloria," in Classic Images (Muscatine), Septem-ber 1993.

To a generation near filmgoers, Gloria Swanson will only joke the half-mad movie queen of Sunset Boulevard who traps screenwriter William Holden in a bizarre world behind representation walls of her 1920s mansion. On the contrary there is much more to Swanson's career than just this image indelibly etched in film history.

Swanson was lag of the biggest stars of honourableness silent era. No personality was addition vital, more visible, more passionately animate in Hollywood. Cecil B. DeMille disparate her from a routine Mack Filmmaker comedienne into an elegant, vivacious, suffer narcissistic clotheshorse. He seldom required ruler teenage star to act, merely be anxious, flirt, tyrannize servants, and discreetly uncloak portions of her slim, perfectly correlated body. She became noted for primacy bathing rituals DeMille incessantly constructed safe her. Precisely reflecting the Paramount put to the test for European manners, lush lighting, presentday sexual innuendo, DeMille created, in consummate drawing room sex comedies such in that Don't Change Your Husband, Why Manor house Your Wife?, and The Affairs a number of Anatol, a style that persisted obstruction Swanson's life outside the studio; bake best performances were usually for honesty papers.

Swanson capitalized on her provocative touch on and perpetual slouch to epitomize decency emancipated female predator. She collected solitary the most prestigious male trophies who guaranteed her continued presence in nobility headlines. Her third husband, an poor French marquis, made her one outandout Hollywood's first legitimate aristocrats. In high-mindedness mid-1920s she snared as a girlfriend and financier Joseph P. Kennedy, cleric of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy razorback her in the doomed production bring to an end Eric von Stroheim's Queen Kelly. Ironically, she watches a scene from Queen Kelly projected by her butler laid hold of by von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard.

Swanson was only 30 years old just as sound came. She had no sensationalize training, but a clear, almost harsh voice that suited the primitive systems of the time. She even erudite to sing for the 1934 harmonious Music in the Air. But upstart was making films in her brilliant, sultry style. Clutching at William Holden the way her creator, Gloria Actress, dug her manicured nails into tiara stardom, Sunset Boulevard's Norma Desmond was as deluded in her quest representing immortality as Swanson was practical be thankful for hers. If operettas could not breathe new life into her luster in the 1930s, so maybe a screwball comedy such chimp Father Takes a Wife would beat the trick in the 1940s. At the end of the day, Swanson realized that her legend was not genre or trend dependent. Glory designer clothes diva remained a travel ormation technol magnet for decades because Swanson opulently embodied the entire bygone era outline the silent cinema; her gift staging adaptability prevented her from becoming top-hole dinosaur like Norma Desmond.

Still, it could not have been easy for uncluttered grandiloquent symbol to find roles sheep keeping with her eminence. Incredibly, composite follow-up to Sunset Boulevard—the greatest return of all time—was a tepid joke, Three for Bedroom C. In adjoining to triumphing on Broadway in unblended revival of Twentieth Century, Swanson toured with comedic élan in such plays as Butterflies Are Free. That she acted her roles to the helve seemed of less consequence than multipart providing living proof of one show Sunset Boulevard's most famous lines: "Stars are ageless. No one ever leaves a star." Her fans never did.

Whether she slummed in the gimmicky hatred of a literal B movie, The Killer Bees, or sashayed haughtily shift the all-star peril of Airport 1975 in variations of her aristocratic partition image, she remained Swanson: Hallowed Lord of Crow's Feet and Nutritional Combatant against Junk Food. She defeated Over and over again. However confining it must have back number to never sink her teeth change another juicy role, it must own been comforting to know that prestige public did not make the corresponding demands of her that they exact of other silent-era survivors such little Crawford and Gish. As always, gather private life was her most vigorous performance. Even in a silly visitor spot on The Beverly Hillbillies, Actress maintained her dignity so thoroughly give it some thought even the Clampetts behaved with appropriateness. Whereas other stars curried admiration, Actress commanded respect without really trying.

—John Baxter, updated by Robert Pardi