Gloria Swanson (March 27, 1897 - April 4, 1983) was an American actress.
Early life
Born Gloria May Josephine Svensson on a military base in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Swedish-American father, she grew up in Puerto Rico, Chicago, and Key West, Florida.
Silent Films
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 the next year in A Dash of Courage. She played many Mack Sennett slapstick
comedies and in 1919 signed with Cecil B. DeMille, who turned her into a romantic lead. She
starred in the 1922 silent film Beyond the Rocks with Rudolph Valentino (this film had been
believed lost but was rediscovered in 2004 in a private collection in The Netherlands.)
Swanson's 1929 film Queen Kelly was directed by Erich von Stroheim and produced by Joseph P.
Kennedy, Sr., father of President John F. Kennedy. She was romantically linked to the elder
Kennedy at the time.
Swanson made it into the talkies, even singing in Music in the Air.
Comeback in Sunset Boulevard
Swanson starred in 1950's Sunset Boulevard after several other former silent screen actresses
(including Mary Pickford) turned down the role,
and it is scenes from Queen Kelly that her character Norma Desmond watches (with von Stroheim
playing her butler). She received several subsequent acting offers but turned most of them
down, saying they tended to be pale imitations of Norma Desmond.
Her last Hollywood movie was Three for Bedroom C in 1952 although she did appear in the
Italian movie Mio figlio Nerone.
Television
Swanson hosted a television anthology series, Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson in which she
occasionally acted. 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, also released in 1974.
Marriages
She married actor Wallace Beery (1885-1949) in 1916. They divorced in 1919 with no children
but according to Swanson she miscarried after Beery, encouraged by his mother, secretly gave
her a poison intended to induce an abortion.
She married Herbert K. Somborn (1881-1934), then president of Equity Pictures Corporation and
later the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant, in 1919. Their daughter, Gloria Swanson
Somborn, was born in 1920. Their divorce, finalized in January 1925, was sensational as
Somborn accused her of adultery with 13 men including Cecil B. DeMille and Marshall Neilan.
During her divorce proceedings in 1923 Swanson adopted a baby boy named Sonny Smith (1922-1975)
. She renamed him Joseph Patrick Swanson.
Her third husband was a French aristocrat, Henry de la Falaise, Marquis de la Falaise, whom
she married in 1925 after the Somborn divorce was finalized. He became a film executive
representing Pathé in the United States. She conceived a child with him but had an abortion
which she said (in her autobiography, Swanson on Swanson) she regretted. This marriage ended
in divorce in 1931.
In August 1931, Swanson married Michael Farmer (1902-1975). Although frequently described as
a sportsman the only evidence of the Irishman's prowess was his frequent betrothals.
Unfortunately Swanson's divorce from La Falaise had not been finalized at the time, making
the actress technically a bigamist. She was forced to remarry Farmer the following November,
by which time she was four months pregnant with Michelle Bridget Farmer who was born in 1932.
The Farmers were divorced in 1934.
In 1945 Swanson married William N. Davey and they divorced in 1946.
Swanson's sixth and final marriage, which occurred in 1976 and lasted until her death, was to
William F. Dufty (1916-2002), author of "Lady Sings the Blues". According to an article in The
Noe Valley Voice about Bevan Dufty (Swanson's stepson), his father was gay the last 20 years
of his life, a period which included his marriage to Swanson.
Gloria Swanson was cremated and her ashes were buried at the Church of Heavenly Rest in New
York City.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6748 Hollywood
Blvd and another for television at 6301 Hollywood Blvd.
Academy Award nominations
1951 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Sunset Boulevard
1930 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - The Trespasser
1929 - Best Actress in a Leading Role - Sadie Thompson
Trivia
Gloria Swanson was the favorite actor of the character Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies and
appeared in at least one episode as herself.
She was a long-time vegetarian and early health food advocate who often brought her own meals
to public functions in a paper bag.
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wiki/Gloria_Swanson
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