Greer Garson

Greer Garson
Greer Garson, circa 1940s
Born	Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (1904-09-29)29 September 1904 Manor Park, East Ham, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Died	6 April 1996(1996-04-06) (aged 91) Dallas, Texas
Resting place	Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas, Texas
Occupation	Actress, singer, philanthropist
Years active	1932–1986
Spouse(s)	Edward Snelson (m. 1933–43) Richard Ney (m. 1943–47) Buddy Fogelson (m. 1949; d. 1987)

Greer Garson, CBE (born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson; 29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996), was a British-American actress who was very popular during the Second World War, being listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942-46.^[1]

A major star at MGM during the 1940s, Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record five consecutive nominations, winning the Best Actress award for Mrs. Miniver (1942).

Childhood

Greer Garson was born on 29 September 1904^[2] in Manor Park, East Ham, Essex, the only child of Nina (née Nancy Sophia Greer; died 1958) and George Garson (1865–1906), a commercial clerk in a London importing business.^[2] Her father was born in London, to Scottish parents,^[2] and her mother was from Drumaloor, Casar, County Down, Northern Ireland.^[3] The name "Greer" is a contraction of "MacGregor", another family name.^[4]

Her maternal grandfather was David Greer, an RIC sergeant in Castlewellan, County Down, Northern Ireland, in the 1880s, who later became a land steward to the Annesley family, wealthy landlords who built the town of Castlewellan. David Greer 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.

Garson 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^[5] at a time when few actors had university degrees. She had intended to become a teacher, but instead began working with an advertising agency, and appeared in local theatrical productions.

Career

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 30-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.^[6]

Garson in Pride and Prejudice (1940)

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.^[7]

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' 1938–42 record, which still stands.^[8] 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,^[9] 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 frequently costarred with Walter Pidgeon, ultimately making eight pictures with him: Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Madame Curie, Mrs. Parkington, Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), and Scandal at Scourie (1953).

Garson and co-star Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver (1942)

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!"^[10] 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 declined somewhat in the late 1940s, but she remained a prominent film star until the mid-1950s.

In 1951, she became a naturalised citizen of the United States.^[11] 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. Greer was special guest on an episode of the TV series Father Knows Best, playing herself.

On 4 October 1956, Garson appeared with Reginald Gardiner as the first two guest stars of the series, in the premiere of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.^[12]

Garson appeared as a mystery guest on What's My Line on 25 October 1953 and on 6 April 1958 to promote her appearance in Auntie Mame. She was a panelist on the 12 May 1957 episode.^[13]

Garson's last film, in 1967, was Walt Disney's The Happiest Millionaire, although she made infrequent television appearances afterwards. In 1968, she narrated the children's television special The Little Drummer Boy, which continues to be aired on ABC Family. During this time, she also appeared on Laugh-in and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

At age 78, Garson's final role for television was in a 1982 episode of The Love Boat, as a clairvoyant.

Garson received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, her late husband's alma mater, in 1991.

In 1993, Queen Elizabeth II recognised Garson's achievements by investing her as Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Personal life

Garson in That Forsyte Woman

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 affairs. She lived with him briefly in Nagpur, a small town in central India, but pined for the theatre and finally succumbed to its calling. A besotted Sir Edward reportedly grieved at losing her and would watch multiple screenings of any film of hers that played in Nagpur. The actual marriage reportedly lasted only a few weeks, but it was not formally dissolved until 1943.

Garson was the mistress of MGM casting director Benny Thau during her early days at the studio.

Her second husband, whom she married (at age 39) on 24 July 1943,^[14] was Richard Ney (1916–2004), the younger actor (27 years old) who played her son in Mrs. Miniver. They divorced in 1947. Ney said the divorce was due to the pressure of sharing a home with his mother-in-law,^[15] while Garson testified in court that Ney was critical of her work and accused her of being a "has-been".^[16] Ney eventually became a stock-market analyst, financial consultant, and author.^[15]

In 1949,^[17] Garson married a millionaire Texas oilman and horse breeder, E.E. "Buddy" Fogelson (1900–1987). 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 Theatre facility at Southern Methodist University.

During her later years, Garson was recognised for her philanthropy and civic leadership. She donated several million dollars for the construction of the Greer Garson Theatre at both the Santa Fe University of Art and Design and at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts on three conditions: 1) the stages be circular, 2) the premiere production be William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and 3) they have large ladies' rooms.^[18] Garson was a devout Presbyterian.^[19]

For much of her life, Garson's true age was concealed from the public. When she was making feature films, her year of birth was given as 1914, making her 10 years younger than she really was. On August 20, 1949, Greer sailed on the Queen Elizabeth from New York. On the official passenger manifest she was listed under her married name, Greer Fogelson with an age of 39 years - making her year of birth 1910. This may have been a canny business decision made by MGM, in an attempt to extend her run as a popular romantic leading lady. Certainly, her busy period in films ended in 1955, soon after she was believed to have turned 40, although she was, in fact, over 50.

From the early 1970s, interest was renewed in the stars of Hollywood's golden age, as their films received regular TV airings, and more facts about performers, as opposed to the information that the studios had circulated about them, came to light. Around this time, a more plausible year of birth for Garson, 1908, began to appear in print. This could have been the year she had given when she took to the stage in the UK, conscious that she was a late starter or, for similar reasons, to MGM at the time she first signed with them. This second date achieved wide credence, until after Garson's death, when obituaries revealed that she had been born four years earlier, in 1904.

Death

In her final years, Garson occupied a penthouse suite at the Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. She died there from heart failure on 6 April 1996, at the age of 91. She is interred beside her late husband in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas.

Filmography

Radio appearances

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greer Garson.

• Greer Garson at the Internet Movie Database
• Greer Garson at the TCM Movie Database
  
• Greer Garson at AllMovie
• Greer Garson at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Greer Garson test footage for Goodbye, Mr. Chips on YouTube
• Greer Garson interview, 1985 on YouTube
• The New York Times obituary
• Forked Lightning Ranch, Pecos National Historical Park
• Greer Garson tribute site
• Everything About Greer Garson fan website