Greer Garson
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Known in childhood as "Eggy" and supposedly born in County Down, Ireland, in 1908, she was actually born in London, the only child of George Garson (1865-1906), a clerk from the Orkney Islands who was himself the son of an Irish 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. She appeared in local theatrical productions, and was discovered by Louis B. Mayer while he was in London looking for new talent. 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.
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1942 for her role as a British matron pluckily surviving in the midst of war in Mrs. Miniver, and she received more nominations during the 1940s. In 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. By the end of the decade, and through the 1950s, however, her roles were becoming less appreciated. In 1960, however, she again received an Oscar nomination for Sunrise at Campobello, in which she played Eleanor Roosevelt.
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 the 1940s.
- Her second husband, whom she married in 1943, was Richard Ney (born 1914, 1915, 1917, or 1918, sources differ), 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.
She died of heart failure in Dallas, Texas on 6 April 1996 and is interred there in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.
Academy Awards and Nominations
- 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. Chips
Filmography
- Goodbye, 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)