Gloria Swanson

Gloria Swanson went to public schools in Chicago; Key West, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her film debut was as an extra in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915).

Underwent an abortion in 1917 during her marriage to Wallace Beery. Swanson called it one of the biggest regrets of her life.

Known for her extravagant lifestyle, it was reported that she earned $8,000,000 between 1918 and 1929 and spent nearly all of it. By the time of her death in 1983, her gross estate was valued at just over $1,440,000.

From the following year on, she had leading roles in pictures for Keystone, then a year with Triangle, and, in 1919, a contract with Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille transformed her from a typical Mack Sennett comedienne into a lively, provocative, even predatory, star. She collected husbands (e. g. , the indigent Henri de la Falaise) and lovers (e. g. , Joseph P. Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy).

Was engaged to Marshall Neilan for some time in the 1920s.

Cited Beyond the Rocks (1922) as one of her favorite films from her silent career.

Met her third husband, the Marquis (or "Marquess") Henri de la Falaise, when he worked as her interpreter in France on Madame Sans-Gêne (1925).

Second husband, Herbert K. Somborn, ran Hollywood's legendary Brown Derby restaurant from 1926 until his death in 1934.

The first film shown at the original Roxy Theatre at 153 West 50th Street, New York City, was Swanson's The Love of Sunya (1927) in March 1927, and she attended the premiere. At its demolition in 1961, she posed in its ruins as a final farewell.

Along with Ruth Chatterton was one of the first stars to be Oscar nominated in two different years, for Sadie Thompson (1928) in 1929 and for The Trespasser (1929) in 1930.

While under contract to MGM in the 1930s, Gloria Swanson wanted to make a film called "Dark Victory," but Irving Thalberg insisted no major studio would make a movie about a woman who dies from a brain tumor. Bette Davis made the film at Warners in 1939 and it was a smash hit.

Kennedy produced her Queen Kelly (1932), directed by Erich von Stroheim (it was von Stroheim's copy of this film that Swanson was watching as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950) when she leaped into the projection beam shouting, "Have they forgotten what a star looks like? I'll be up there again, so help me!"--ironic in that the butler-projectionist was, again, von Stroheim).

She survived the switch to talkies, even learning how to sing for Music in the Air (1934), but her kinds of films were over with by that time.

She was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of Morticia Addams in The Addams Family, when were published in The New Yorker in 1938. Swanson was 39 years old at the point.

Was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), which went to Vivien Leigh.

She returned to the stage in the 1940s ("Reflected Glory," "Let us Be Gay," "A Goose for a Gander").

Her performance as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950) is ranked #31 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

She was a clothes designer and artist; she founded Essence of Nature Cosmetics; and she made television appearances through the 1960s and 1970s, doing cameos and pushing health foods.

Was Daisy "Granny" Moses' favorite movie star in The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) TV series. In referring to Swanson, Granny would always say, "We's lookalikes, y'know".

In 1964, she was one of many guest speakers at the Project Prayer Rally in Los Angeles, California.

Godmother of director/writer Dirk Wayne Summers, and had signed to appear in The Great Sex War (1969), a film he was producing in Mexico. However, Swanson and her soon to be husband, William Dufty, took it upon themselves (without being asked) to rewrite the screenplay. The "changes" in the script that Swanson desired were not ones that Summers wanted to include, so they mutually released each other from their contracts. This did not impact their close relationship, apparently. Swanson accompanied Summers to Mexico for a location scouting trip.

Her last husband, William Dufty, was a well-known author of books and a few screenplays, such as Lady Sings the Blues (1972), the Billie Holiday story. It was Dufty, translator of "You Are All Sanpaku", by George Ohsawa, who was influenced by Swanson to take an interest in health and become involved in holistic-health related literature.

Wrote her autobiography in rebuttal to certain claims made by Rose Kennedy in her 1974 memoirs.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 776-778. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

She and her Hollywood (1923) co-star Jacqueline Logan both died on April 4, 1983.