Greer Garson Pics

Greer

Garson

1904-09-29

66

Slim

Green

Red

London, England

Libra

1996-04-06

Dallas, Tx

Heart Failure

White

Presbyterian

Mrs. Miniver

English

Female

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Actor/Actress, Soundtrack, Other Crew

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Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, CBE (September 29, 1904 - April 6, 1996) was an Academy Award-winning English actress very popular during the World War II years and was the leading lady in many pictures with Walter Pidgeon. Known in childhood as "Eggy", 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 NI in the 1880s and who later became a land steward to the Annesleys wealthy landlords who built the 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 Ms. 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 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. Career: She appeared on television during its earliest years, in the 1930s, most notably in a thirty-minute production of an excerpt of Twelfth Night in May 1937, alongside Peggy Ashcroft. 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 opposite 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.[citation needed]) She was also nominated for Madame Curie (1943), Mrs. Parkington (1944), and The Valley of Decision (1945). Garson was a popular dramatic actress for several years when she was teamed with Clark Gable in his first film since returning from war service in 1945, Adventure. The film was advertised with the catch-phrase "Gable`s back and Garson`s got him!" Garson`s popularity dropped somewhat in the late 1940s, but she remained a popular film star until the mid 1950s. Personal Life: Garson was married three times. Her first marriage, on September 28, 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 in 1943, was Richard Ney (1915-2004), the younger 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, 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. In 1971 they purchased the U.S. Hall of Fame champion Thoroughbred Ack Ack from the estate of Harry F. Guggenheim 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 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. Greer Garson died from heart failure in Dallas on April 6, 1996, at the age of 91. She is interred there in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.

University of London

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson

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36

25

38

B

12

Red Hair

George Garson

Nina Sophia Garson

Rosalind Russell, Laurence Olivier, Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders, Louis B. Mayer, Errol Flynn, Benjamin Thau, Dame May Whitty, Dore Schary, Sidney Franklin, Gladys Cooper, Robert Donat, Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Tay Garrett, George Cukor, Dana Andrews, Cesar Romero, Vincente Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Art Linkletter, Fred MacMurray, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Brian Aherne, Lew Ayres, William Tuttle, Sydney Guiraloff, George Schaefer, Ralph Levy, William Frye, Arthur Cantor, Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Mervyn Leroy, Jeanette MacDonald, Humphrey Bogart, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Lillian Burns, Victor Fleming, Thomas Mitchell, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ann Sothern

Gogo (Dog - Poodle), Cliquot (Dog - Poodle)

A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson (Michael Troyan), The Stars of Hollywood Remembered: Career Biographies of 82 Actors and Actresses of the Golden Era, 1920S-1950s (J. G. Ellrod), Hollywood Divas : The Good, The Bad, and The Fabulous (James Robert Parish)

New Mexico

91

Eleanor Roosevelt, Ilona Massey, Hedy Lamarr

Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, CBE (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was a British actress who was very popular during World War II, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top ten box office draws in 1942–46. 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).

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