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Gloria Swanson (March 27, 1897 - April 4, 1983) was an American actress.
Born Gloria May Josephine Svensson in a military base in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Swedish-American father, she grew up in Puerto Rico, Chicago, and Key West, Florida. Her film debut was in 1915, as an extra in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket, but she was a star by the next year, in A Dash of Courage. She played many Mack Sennett slapstick comedies, but in 1919 she signed with Cecil B. DeMille, and he turned her into a romantic lead. She starred in the 1922 silent film Beyond the Rocks with Rudolph Valentino.
Swanson's 1929 film Queen Kelly, was directed by Erich von Stroheim and produced by Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the father of President John F. Kennedy. She was romantically linked to the elder Kennedy at the time.
When Swanson starred in the 1950 Sunset Boulevard, it is scenes of Queen Kelly that her character, Norma Desmond, is watching (with von Stroheim playing her butler).
Swanson made it into the talkies, even singing in Music in the Air, and she hosted a television anthology series, Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, in which she occasionally acted. Her last Hollywood movie was Three for Bedroom C in 1952, although she did appear in the Italian movie Mio figlio Nerone.
Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" Her last acting role was in the television horror film Killer Bees in 1974, though she also appeared as herself in the movie Airport 1975 which was also released in 1974.
Gloria Swanson was cremated, her ashes buried at the Church of Heavenly Rest, in New York City.
She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - one for motion pictures at 6748 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 6301 Hollywood Blvd.
Marriages
- She married actor Wallace Beery in 1916; they divorced in 1919.
- She married Herbert K. Somborn, owner of the Brown Derby restaurant, in 1919. Their daughter Gloria was born in 1920; they divorced in 1923.
- Her third husband was a French aristocrat, Henry de la Falaise, Marquis de la Falaise, in 1925. He became a film executive. She conceived a child with him, and had an abortion, which she says, in her autobiography, Swanson on Swanson, she regretted. This marriage ended in divorce in 1930.
- In 1931, Swanson married Michael Farmer; although frequently described as a "sportsman," the only evidence of his prowess was his frequent betrothals. Their marriage produced a daughter Michelle Bridget Farmer, and ended in divorce in 1934.
- In 1945 Swanson married William N. Davy: they divorced in 1946.
- Swanson's final marriage was to William Dufty (author of Lady Sings the Blues) in 1976.
Academy Award nominations
Additional Information
Gloria Swanson was the favorite actor of the character Granny, from The Beverly Hillbillies. She appeared in at least one episode as herself.
See also
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