Gloria Swanson first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for her 1950 return in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, which earned her a Golden Globe Award.
82 Facts About Gloria Swanson
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The 15-year-old Gloria Swanson was offered a brief walk-on for one film, beginning her life's career in front of the cameras.
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Gloria Swanson was hired to work in California for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios comedy shorts opposite Bobby Vernon.
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Gloria Swanson starred in a series of films about society, directed by Cecil B DeMille, including Male and Female.
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Gloria Swanson continued as a successful movie star in The Affairs of Anatol and Beyond the Rocks.
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Gloria Swanson starred in critically acclaimed performances such as Zaza and Madame Sans-Gene.
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In 1925, Gloria Swanson joined United Artists as one of the film industry's pioneering women filmmakers.
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Gloria Swanson produced and starred in the 1928 film Sadie Thompson, earning her a nomination for Best Actress at the first annual Academy Awards.
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Gloria Swanson received renewed praise for her return to the screen in her role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
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Gloria Swanson only made three more films, but guest starred on several television shows, and acted in road productions of stage plays.
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Gloria Swanson was born in a small house in Chicago in 1899, the only child of Adelaide and Joseph Theodore Gloria Swanson, a soldier.
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Gloria Swanson's father was a Swedish American and her mother was of German, French, and Polish ancestry.
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Gloria Swanson spent some of her childhood in Key West, Florida, where she was enrolled in a Catholic convent school, and in Puerto Rico, where she saw her first motion pictures.
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Gloria Swanson later recalled that her Aunt Inga brought her at the age of 15 to visit Bushman's studio, where she was discovered by a tour guide.
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Gloria Swanson's first role was a brief walk-on with actress Gerda Holmes, that paid an enormous $3.25.
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Vernon and Gloria Swanson projected a great screen chemistry that proved popular with audiences.
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Director Charley Chase recalled that Gloria Swanson was "frightened to death" of Vernon's dangerous stunts.
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Badger was sufficiently impressed by Gloria Swanson to recommend her to the director Jack Conway for Her Decision and You Can't Believe Everything in 1918.
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At the behest of DeMille, Gloria Swanson signed a contract with Famous Players-Lasky on December 30,1918, for $150 a week, to be raised to $200 a week, and eventually $350 a week.
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Gloria Swanson made six pictures under the direction of DeMille, including Male and Female in which she posed with a lion as "Lion's Bride".
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Gloria Swanson next appeared in 10 films directed by Sam Wood, starting with The Great Moment and including Beyond the Rocks in 1922 with her longtime friend Rudolph Valentino.
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Valentino had become a star in 1921 for his appearance in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but Gloria Swanson had known him since his days as an aspiring actor getting small parts, with no apparent hope for his professional future.
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Gloria Swanson was impressed by his shy, well-mannered personality, the complete opposite of what his public image would become.
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In 1925, Gloria Swanson starred in the French-American comedy Madame Sans-Gene, directed by Leonce Perret.
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Gloria Swanson appeared in a 1925 short produced by Lee de Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
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Gloria Swanson made a number of films for Paramount, including The Coast of Folly, Stage Struck and The Untamed Lady.
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Gloria Swanson turned down a one-million-dollar-a-year contract with Paramount in favor of joining the newly created United Artists partnership on June 25,1925, accepting a six-picture distribution offer from president Joseph Schenck.
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At the time, Gloria Swanson was considered the most bankable star of her era.
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The Gloria Swanson Producing Corporation was set up as the umbrella organization for her agreement with United Artists.
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Gloria Swanson engaged the services of director Raoul Walsh in 1927 and together they conceived of making a film based on W Somerset Maugham's short story "Miss Thompson".
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Gloria Swanson Productions proposed to film the controversial Sadie Thompson about the travails of a prostitute living in American Samoa, a project that initially pleased United Artists president Joseph Schenck.
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At the first annual Academy Awards, Gloria Swanson received a nomination for Best Actress for her performance, and the film's cinematographer George Barnes was nominated.
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Gloria Swanson had not made good on her $100,000 subscription for preferred United Artists shared stock.
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Gloria Swanson had received financial proposals from United Artists studio head Joseph Schenck, as well as from Bank of America, prior to engaging the services of Joseph P Kennedy Sr.
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Gloria Swanson proposed to personally bankroll her next picture and conducted a thorough examination of her financial records.
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Gloria Swanson agreed to his plan for a fresh start under the dummy corporate name of Gloria Productions, headquartered in Delaware.
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Gloria Swanson was hesitant to hire Stroheim, who was known for being difficult to deal with and who was unwilling to work within any budget.
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Gloria Swanson's filming was slow, albeit meticulous, and the cast and crew suffered from long hours.
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The film was a melodrama, complete with musical numbers sung by Gloria Swanson and completed in 21 days.
40.
When she made the transition to sound films as her career simultaneously began to decline, Gloria Swanson moved permanently to New York City in 1938.
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Gloria Swanson starred in Father Takes a Wife for RKO in 1941.
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Gloria Swanson began appearing in stage productions and starred in The Gloria Swanson Hour on WPIX-TV in 1948.
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Gloria Swanson toured in summer stock, engaged in political activism, designed and marketed clothing and accessories, and made personal appearances on radio and in movie theaters.
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Gloria Swanson becomes delusional by the time the police and news media arrive.
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Gloria Swanson received several acting offers following the release of Sunset Boulevard, but turned most of them down, saying they tended to be pale imitations of Norma Desmond.
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Gloria Swanson was the "mystery guest" on What's My Line.
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Gloria Swanson acted in "Behind the Locked Door" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964 and, in the same year, she was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance in Burke's Law.
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Gloria Swanson made a notable appearance in a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, in which she plays herself.
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Actor and playwright Harold J Kennedy, who had learned the ropes at Yale and with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, suggested Swanson do a road tour of "Reflected Glory", a comedy that had run on the Broadway stage with Tallulah Bankhead as its star.
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Gloria Swanson was a vegetarian and an early health food advocate who was known for bringing her own meals to public functions in a tin box.
51.
In 1975, Gloria Swanson traveled the United States and helped to promote the book Sugar Blues written by her husband, William Dufty.
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Gloria Swanson was a pupil of the yoga guru Indra Devi and was photographed performing a series of yoga poses, reportedly looking much younger than her age, for Devi to use in her book Forever Young, Forever Healthy; but the publisher Prentice-Hall decided to use the photographs for Swanson's book, not Devi's.
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In 1964, Gloria Swanson spoke at a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
54.
Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson married on her 17th birthday on March 27,1916, but by her wedding night she felt she had made a mistake and saw no way out of it.
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Gloria Swanson did not like his home or his family and was repulsed by him as a lover.
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Gloria Swanson married Herbert K Somborn on December 20,1919.
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Gloria Swanson was at that time president of Equity Pictures Corporation and later the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant.
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The public sensationalism led to Gloria Swanson having a "morals clause" added to her studio contract.
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Gloria Swanson was then and he remains in memory a more delightful companion than any I have known.
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Gloria Swanson had conceived a child with him before her divorce from Somborn was final, a situation that would have led to a public scandal and possible end of her film career.
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Gloria Swanson received a huge welcome home with parades in both New York and Los Angeles.
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Gloria Swanson became a film executive representing Pathe in France.
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Gloria Swanson described herself as a "mental vampire", someone with a searching curiosity about how things worked, and who pursued the possibilities of turning those ideas into reality.
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Gloria Swanson became her business partner and their relationship was an open secret in Hollywood.
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Gloria Swanson took over all of her personal and business affairs and was supposed to make her millions.
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Gloria Swanson began spending time with him, during which she discovered a breast lump and became pregnant, but was not yet divorced from Henri.
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Gloria Swanson was not interested in marrying Farmer, but he did not want to break off the relationship.
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Davey was a wealthy investment broker whom Gloria Swanson met in October 1944 while she was appearing in A Goose for the Gander.
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Gloria Swanson initially thought she was going to be able to retire from acting, but the marriage was troubled by Davey's alcoholism from the start.
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Gloria Swanson died within a year, not having paid anything to Swanson, and left the bulk of his estate to the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund.
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Gloria Swanson's sixth husband William Dufty was a writer who worked for many years at the New York Post, where he was assistant to the editor from 1951 to 1960.
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Gloria Swanson was the co-author of Billie Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, the author of Sugar Blues, a 1975 best-selling health book still in print, and the author of the English version of Georges Ohsawa's You Are All Sanpaku.
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Gloria Swanson shared her husband's enthusiasm for macrobiotic diets, and they traveled widely together to speak about nutrition.
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Gloria Swanson testified on Lennon's behalf at his immigration hearing in New York City, which led to his becoming a permanent resident.
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Gloria Swanson died of a heart ailment at the New York Hospital on April 4,1983.
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Gloria Swanson had just returned from her home in the Portuguese Riviera.
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Gloria Swanson was cremated and her ashes interred at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest on Fifth Avenue in New York City, attended by only a small circle of family.
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In 1960, Gloria Swanson was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures at 6750 Hollywood Boulevard, and another for television at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard.
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In 1955 and 1957, Swanson was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film, and in 1966, the museum honored her with a career film retrospective, titled A Tribute to Gloria Swanson, which screened several of her movies.
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In 1974, Gloria Swanson was one of the honorees of the first Telluride Film Festival.
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In 1982, a year before her death, Gloria Swanson sold her archives of over 600 boxes for an undisclosed sum, including photographs, artwork, copies of films and private papers, including correspondence, contracts, and financial dealings, to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Gloria Swanson has been played both on television and in film by the following actresses:.