Greer Garson
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Greer Garson in Random Harvest (1942) |
Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (
September 29,
1904 –
April 6,
1996) was an
Academy Award-winning
actress, most known for being the leading lady in many pictures co-starring
Walter Pidgeon.
Known in childhood as "Eggy" and supposedly born in
Castlewellan,
County Down,
Ireland, in 1908, she was actually born in North East Ham in 1904, the only child of George Garson (1865-1906), a clerk from the
Orkney Islands, who was himself the son of a
Protestant Irish-born cabinetmaker, and his
Scottish wife, Nancy ("Nina") Sophia Greer.
She was educated at the
University of London, where she earned degrees in French and 18th-century literature. She intended to become a teacher, but instead began working with an advertising agency, and appeared in local theatrical productions. She also appeared on
television during the
1930s, most notably in a thirty-minute production of an excerpt of
Twelfth Night in May 1937, alongside
Peggy Ashcroft, which was the first known instance of a
Shakespeare play being performed on television.
She was discovered by
Louis B. Mayer while he was in London looking for new talents. Garson was signed to a contract with
MGM and appeared in her first American film,
Goodbye, Mr. Chips, in 1939. She received her first Oscar nomination for the role but lost to Vivien Leigh for
Gone with the Wind.
Greer Garson became a major box office star in 1941 with the sentimental
Technicolor drama
Blossoms in the Dust which brought her the first of Five consecutive Best Actress Oscar nominations, tieing
Bette Davis' 1938-1942 record, a record that still stands in the category. Garson won the
Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942 for her role as a plucky British matron surviving in the midst of war in
Mrs. Miniver. She was also nominated for
Madame Curie (1943),
Mrs. Parkington (1944), and
The Valley of Decision (1945).
She had been America's most popular dramatic actress for several years when she was teamed with
Clark Gable in his first film since returning from war service in 1945 titled
Adventure. Garson's popularity dropped somewhat in the late 1940's but she remained a famous and popular film star until the mid 1950's.
In 1951, she became a
naturalized citizen of the United States. After her
MGM contract expired in 1954, she made only a few films. In 1958, she received a warm reception on Broadway in
Auntie Mame, replacing
Rosalind Russell, who had gone to Hollywood to make the film version. In 1960, Garson received her seventh and final Oscar nomination for
Sunrise at Campobello, in which she played
Eleanor Roosevelt, this time losing to
Elizabeth Taylor for
BUtterfield 8 .
Garson's last film was 1967's
The Happiest Millionaire, although she made infrequent television appearances. In 1968 she narrated the children's television special
The Little Drummer Boy which went on to become one of the classic Christmas television programs and which has been broadcast annually every year since 1966.
The actress was married three times:
* Her first husband, whom she married on September 28, 1933, was
Edward (later Sir Edward) Alec Abbot Snelson (1904-1992), a British
civil servant who became a noted judge and expert in Indian and Pakistani affairs; the real marriage reportedly lasted only a few weeks, but was not formally dissolved until 1943.
* Her second husband, whom she married in 1943, was
Richard Ney (
1915-
2004), the young actor who played her son in "Mrs. Miniver"; they divorced in 1949, with Garson claiming that Ney had called her a "has-been" and belittled her age. Ney eventually became a respected stock-market analyst and financial consultant.
* That same year (1949) she married a millionaire Texas oilman and horse breeder,
E. E. "Buddy" Fogelson (died 1987), and in 1967, the couple retired to the
Forked Lightning Ranch in
New Mexico. They also lived in
Dallas, Texas, where Garson funded the Greer Garson Theater facility at
Southern Methodist University (SMU).
She died from
heart failure in
Dallas on
April 6,
1996, at the age of 91, and is interred there in the
Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.
*
1961 Nominated
Sunrise at Campobello*
1946 Nominated
The Valley of Decision*
1945 Nominated
Mrs. Parkington*
1944 Nominated
Madame Curie*
1943 Won
Mrs. Miniver*
1942 Nominated
Blossoms In the Dust*
1940 Nominated
Goodbye, Mr. ChipsGoodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Remember? (1939)
The Miracle of Sound (1940) (short subject)
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
When Ladies Meet (1941)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Random Harvest (1942)
The Youngest Profession (1943) (cameo)
Madame Curie (1943)
Mrs. Parkington (1944)
The Valley of Decision (1945)
Adventure (1945)
Desire Me (1947)
Julia Misbehaves (1948)
That Forsyte Woman (1949)
Screen Actors (1950) (short subject)
The Miniver Story (1950)
The Law and the Lady (1951)
Scandal at Scourie (1953)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Her Twelve Men (1954)
Strange Lady in Town (1955)
Sunrise at Campobello (1960)
Pepe (1960) (cameo)
The Singing Nun (1966)
The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
Directed by William Wyler (1986) (documentary)
*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Greer Garson
