Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson,
CBE (29 September 1904 – 6 April
1996) was a
British-born actress who
was very popular during
World War II.
As one of
MGM's major stars of the 1940s, Garson
received seven
Academy Award
nominations, winning the
Best Actress award for
Mrs. Miniver (1942).
She was often cast in films with
Walter
Pidgeon as her co-star.
Early life
Greer
Garson was born in Manor Park
, Essex (now Greater London
), England
in
1904. She was the only child of George Garson
(1865-1906), a clerk born in London
, but with
Scottish lineage, and his Irish wife,
Nancy ("Nina") Sophia Greer (d. 1958).
Her maternal
grandfather was David Greer, a RIC sergeant in Castlewellan
, Co Down, Ireland
in the 1880s
and who later became a land steward to the Annesleys' wealthy
landlords, who built the town of Castlewellan. He lived in a
large detached house built on the lower part of what was known as
Pig Street or known locally as the Back Way near Shilliday’s
builder’s yard. The house was called ‘Claremount’ and today the
street is named Claremount Avenue. It was often reported that
Garson was born in this house. She was, in fact born in London, but
spent many of her childhood days in Castlewellan.
She was
educated at King's
College London
, where she earned degrees in French and 18th-century literature, and at
the University of Grenoble in
France . She had intended to become a teacher, but instead
began working with an advertising agency, and appeared in local
theatrical productions.
Career
Garson in
Pride and Prejudice
(1940)
Greer
Garson's early professional appearances were on stage, starting at
Birmingham
Repertory Theatre
in January 1932. She appeared on
television during its earliest years (the late
1930s), most notably starring in a thirty-minute production of an
excerpt of
Twelfth Night in
May 1937, with
Dorothy Black.
These live
transmissions were part of the BBC's
experimental service from Alexandra Palace
and this is the first known instance of a Shakespeare play performed on
television.
Louis B. Mayer discovered Garson while he was in
London looking for new talent. Garson was signed to a contract with
MGM in late 1937, but did not begin work on her
first film,
Goodbye,
Mr. Chips, until late 1938. She received her first Oscar
nomination for the role, but lost to
Vivien
Leigh for
Gone with
the Wind. She received critical acclaim the next year for
her role as
Elizabeth Bennet in the
1940 film,
Pride and
Prejudice.
Garson starred with
Joan Crawford in
When Ladies
Meet in 1941, and that same year became a major box office
star with the sentimental
Technicolor
drama
Blossoms in the
Dust, which brought her the first of five consecutive Best
Actress Oscar nominations, tying
Bette
Davis' 1938-1942 record, a record that still stands. Garson won
the
Academy Award for
Best Actress in 1942 for her role as a strong British wife and
mother in the middle of World War II in
Mrs. Miniver. (
Guinness Book of World
Records credits her with the longest
Oscar acceptance speech, at five minutes and
30 seconds, after which the Academy Awards instituted a time
limit.) She was also nominated for
Madame Curie (1943),
Mrs. Parkington (1944), and
The Valley of
Decision (1945).
Garson was partnered with
Clark Gable,
after his return from war service, in
Adventure (1945). The film was
advertised with the catch-phrase "Gable's back and Garson's got
him!" Gable argued for "He put the Arson in Garson"; she countered
"She Put the Able in Gable!"; thereafter, the safer catchphrase was
selected. Garson's popularity dropped somewhat in the late 1940s,
but she remained a prominent film star until the mid-1950s, as she
was known for her gorgeous red hair.
In 1951, she became a
naturalized
citizen of the United States. She made only a few films after
her
MGM contract expired in 1954. 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, in 1967, was
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 a classic children's Christmas television program
which was broadcast annually for many years.
Personal life
Garson was married three times. Her first marriage, on 28 September
1933, was to
Edward Alec Abbot
Snelson (1904-1992), later Sir Edward, a British
civil servant who became a noted judge and
expert in Indian and Pakistani affairs. The actual marriage
reportedly lasted only a few weeks, but was not formally dissolved
until 1943.
Her second husband, whom she married (at age 39) in 1943, was
Richard Ney (1915-2004), the younger
actor (28 years old) who played her son in
Mrs. Miniver.
They divorced in 1947, with Garson claiming that Ney called her a
"has-been" and belittled her age, as well as testimony from Garson
that he also
physically abused
her. Ney eventually became a respected stock-market analyst and
financial consultant.
That same
year, she married a millionaire Texas
oilman and
horse breeder, E. E.
"Buddy" Fogelson (1900-1987), and in 1967,
the couple retired to their "Forked Lightning Ranch" in New Mexico
. They purchased the
U.S. Hall of Fame
champion
Thoroughbred Ack Ack from the estate of
Harry F. Guggenheim in 1971, and were highly
successful as breeders.
They also maintained a home in Dallas, Texas
, where Garson funded the Greer Garson Theater
facility at Southern Methodist University
.
Garson
donated millions for the construction of the Greer Garson Theater at the College of Santa Fe and The Meadows School of the Arts at
Southern
Methodist University on three conditions: 1) that the stage be circular,
2) that the premiere production be William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream,
and 3) that it have large ladies' rooms.
Death
Greer
Garson died from heart failure in
Dallas on 6 April
1996, at the age of 91. She is interred there in the
Sparkman-Hillcrest
Memorial Park Cemetery.
Filmography
References
Notes
- http://www.thefilter.com/Actor-Director/156502-Greer-Garson
Garson's educational details are provided near the beginning
- Troyan, Michael (1999), pp. 57-58, 380
-
http://www.starpulse.com/Actresses/Garson,_Greer/Biography/
- Garnett, Tay, Light Your Torches and Pull up your
Tights, New Rochelle, N.Y., Arlington House, [1973], ISBN
0-87000-204-X
- Troyan, Michael (1999), pp. 240-241
- Sarvady, Andrea (2006), p. 83
Bibliography
- Sarvady, Andrea, Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable
Actresses of the Studio Era (edited by Frank Miller), (TCM
Film Guides), San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 2006, ISBN
0-8118-5248-2
- Troyan, Michael, A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer
Garson, Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, ISBN
0-8131-2094-2
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