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1-9 of 9
- 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 Boulevard (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.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Beautiful auburn-haired, green-eyed leading lady of the silent screen, a "hand-picked" (by the great Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. himself) Ziegfeld Follies girl of 1920. "Jackie" was the daughter of architect Charles A. Logan and the Boston Conservatory opera singer and music teacher Marion Logan. She had a bit of a musical background, singing and learning to play piano and pipe organ at an early age. She was educated in Colorado and briefly worked as a newspaper reporter prior to finding her way into an acting troupe bound for Chicago. Having lied about her age, she was eventually let go and made her own way to New York, where (still without the requisite approval or even knowledge of her parents as to her newfound acting ambitions) she made her theatrical debut in a revival of "Floradora" in 1920. That same year she appeared as a dancer in the Follies and modeled as a "Dobbs Girl" for noted Broadway photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston (1885-1971). After successful auditions (with a little mentoring from the actor Ben Lyon), she began to grace the screen in 1922 and quickly moved on to leading roles in westerns, dramas and romantic comedies. Her part as Mary Magdalene in Cecil B. DeMille's epic The King of Kings (1927) is often cited as her most high-profile performance.
Unaccountably, though she took vocal lessons, her career in talking pictures never took off. Her looks remained exquisite and her voice was apparently good enough for the Broadway stage, to which she returned-- albeit unsuccessfully--in the mid-'30s. She attempted another comeback on the London stage and co-starred with English matinée idol Owen Nares in the comedy The Middle Watch (1930). Under contract to British International Pictures the following year, she wrote and directed the crime comedy Strictly Business (1931), a modest box-office success. However, upon her return to Hollywood, she found all doors firmly closed. Another Dorothy Arzner was not what the studios had in mind.
She may well have been too outspoken for her time, for in her later years she took on another role as a determined advocate of right-wing conservatism.- Danny Rapp was born on 10 May 1941 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Gloria Padlo Rapp-Romolini. He died on 4 April 1983 in Parker, Arizona, USA.
- Dorothy Kingston was born on 24 November 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Hollywood Horror House (1970), 87th Precinct (1961) and Angel (1960). She died on 4 April 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Ida Montagne was born on 11 February 1923 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for Mister Taxi (1952), Mon mari est merveilleux (1952) and Le plus heureux des hommes (1952). She died on 4 April 1983 in Orléans, Loiret, France.
- Madeleine Fromet was born on 21 February 1900 in Chauny, Aisne, France. She was an actress, known for Les deux gosses (1916), La grève des forgerons (1910) and Athallah (1911). She was married to Raymond Cordy. She died on 4 April 1983 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France.
- Bernard Vukas was born on 1 May 1927 in Zagreb, Croatia. He died on 4 April 1983.
- Wen Lai was born in 1916 in Wuzhou City, Guangxi Province, China. She was an actress, known for Kun Lun san sha shou (1967), Hei mei gui (1965) and Bai niao chao huang (1961). She died on 4 April 1983 in Hong Kong, British Crown Colony.
- Actress
Man Lai was born in 1916 in China. She was an actress, known for Qiu (1954), Chun (1953) and Mi ren de ai qing (1969). She died on 4 April 1983.