Gloria Swanson

Gloria May Josephine Swanson (/ˈswɑːnsən/; March 27, 1899 – April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer best known for her role as Norma Desmond, a reclusive silent film star, in the critically acclaimed 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. Swanson was also a star in the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille. She starred in dozens of silent films and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. She also produced her own films, including Sadie Thompson and The Love of Sunya. In 1929, Swanson transitioned to talkies with The Trespasser. Personal problems and changing tastes saw her popularity wane during the 1930s when she moved into theater, and later television. During Swanson's heyday, audiences went to her films not only for her performances, but also to see her wardrobe. She was frequently ornamented with beads, jewels, peacock and ostrich feathers and other extravagant pieces of haute couture. Her fashion, hair styles, and jewels were copied around the world. She was the screen's first clothes horse and was becoming one of the most famous and photographed women in the world. Swanson met her third husband Henri, Marquis de la Falaise, who had been hired to be her translator during the film's production. After a four months residency in France she returned to the United States as European nobility, now known as the Marquise. She got a huge welcome home with parades in both New York and Los Angeles. The Trespasser tells the story of a "kept woman" who maintains a lavish lifestyle. The film stars Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B. Walthall, and Wally Albright. The movie was written and directed by Edmund Goulding and released by United Artists, and earned Swanson an Academy Award nomination in her talkie debut. Swanson sang the song "Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere" written by Goulding and Elsie Janis. The Trespasser was filmed simultaneously in a silent and a talking version, and was a smash hit. The Trespasser was an important film for Swanson, following the disastrous Queen Kelly and the hit Sadie Thompson, and garnered Swanson her second Oscar nomination. Sadly for Swanson, The Trespasser proved to be one of her only two hit talkies, the other being Sunset Boulevard, made over 20 years later. Subsequent follow-ups like What a Widow!, Indiscreet, Tonight or Never, Perfect Understanding, and Music in the Air all proved to be box-office flops. Despite the disappointments following The Trespasser, Swanson was well remembered by Billy Wilder, a writer on Music in the Air, when he was casting the part of Norma Desmond in his masterpiece Sunset Boulevard (1950). Swanson starred in 1950's Sunset Boulevard, portraying Norma Desmond, a faded silent movie star who falls in love with the younger screenwriter Joe Gillis, played by William Holden. Desmond lives in the past, assisted by her butler Max, played by Erich von Stroheim. Her dreams of a comeback are subverted as she becomes delusional. There are cameos from actors of the silent era in the film, including Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson. Cecil B. DeMille plays himself in a pivotal scene. Some of the lines from the film have become pop-culture mainstays, including "The Greatest Star of them all"; "I am big; it's the pictures that got small"; "We didn't need dialogue, we had faces"; and "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." She received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination, but lost to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday. Swanson hosted one of the first live television series in 1948, The Gloria Swanson Hour, in which she invited friends and others to be guests. Swanson also later hosted a television anthology series, Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson, in which she occasionally acted. Swanson became a vegetarian around 1928 and was an early health food advocate who was known for bringing her own meals to public functions in a paper bag. Swanson told actor Dirk Benedict about macrobiotic diets when he was battling prostate cancer at a very early age. He had refused conventional therapies and credited this kind of diet and healthy eating with his recovery. In 1975, Swanson traveled the United States and helped to promote the book Sugar Blues written by her husband, William Dufty. In early 1980, Swanson's 520-page autobiography, Swanson on Swanson, was published by Random House and became a national best-seller. It was translated into French, Italian and Swedish editions. That same year, she also designed a stamp cachet for the United Nations Postal Administration.