Gloria May Josephine Swanson
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Gloria Swanson, born in Chicago in 1899, became the highest-paid actress of the 1920s. She earned three Oscar nominations, including for her role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard 1950. She was a silent film star who transitioned to talkies and later television.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Gloria Swanson — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Gloria Swanson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Gloria Swanson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Gloria May Josephine Swanson was born on March 27, 1899, in Chicago, Illinois, to Adelaide Klanowski and Joseph T. Swanson. Her father was of Swedish descent, and her mother had Polish, German, and French ancestry. After attending Lake View High School, she worked as a salesclerk in a department store. In 1915, at age 18, she visited a Chicago movie studio with an aunt and was cast as a bit player in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket 1915, launching her film career.
Swanson’s breakout came with The Pullman Bride 1917 and Shifting Sands 1918, but she soared under director Cecil B. DeMille in Don’t Change Your Husband 1919. By the mid-1920s, she was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, earning around $8 million between 1918 and 1929. Her first Oscar nomination came for Sadie Thompson 1928, and a second for The Trespasser 1929. After a hiatus, she returned in 1950 as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, earning a third nomination. After 1950, she appeared on television and made her final film appearance in Airport 1975 1974.
Swanson married six times: Wallace Beery 1916–1918, Herbert K. Somborn 1919–1923, Henri de la Falaise 1925–1931, Michael Farmer 1931–1934, George William Davey 1945–1948, and William Dufty 1976–1983. She had two biological daughters: Gloria Somborn born 1920 and Michelle Bridget Farmer born 1932, and an adopted son, Joseph Patrick born 1949. In 1917, during her marriage to Beery, she underwent an abortion, which she later called one of her greatest regrets.
Swanson’s performance in Sunset Boulevard is ranked #31 on Premiere Magazine‘s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Her appearance inspired the original illustrations of Morticia Addams in The New Yorker in 1938. She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for Sunset Boulevard and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed Sunset Boulevard 12th on its list of the top 100 films.
Browse the complete filmography of Gloria Swanson — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Gloria Swanson — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Gloria Swanson's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Gloria Swanson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Have Decided That When I Am a Star, I Will Be Every Inch and Every Moment a Star.
All Creative People Should Be Required to Leave California for Three Months Every Year.
I Think All This Talk About Age Is Foolish. Every Time I’m One Year Older, Everyone Else Is Too.
I’ve Given My Memoirs Far More Thought Than Any of My Marriages. You Can’t Divorce a Book.
When I Die, My Epitaph Should Read She Paid the Bills. That’s the Story of My Private Life.
After 16 Years in Pictures I Could Not Be Intimidated Easily, Because I Knew Where All the Skeletons Were Buried.
After Seven Years in One Place, Not to Mention Two Marriages and 32 Pictures, I Felt I Had Earned a Vacation.
A Crisis Arose When Several Newspapers Questioned Whether My Singing Voice Was Real. I Had Not Sung They Wanted to Know Why.
All They Had to Do Was Put My Name on a Marquee and Watch the Money Roll In.
As Daddy Said, Life Is 95 Percent Anticipation.
At 26, I Felt Myself a Victim Rather Than a Victor in the Realm of Pictures.
By the Time I Was 15, My Mother Had Turned Me into a Real Clotheshorse.
Every Victory Is Also a Defeat.
Under God We Became the Freest, Strongest, Wealthiest Nation on Earth. Should We Change That?
I Haven’t a Very Great Sense of Humor. When I See a Comedy I Laugh with the Others. I’m Sufficiently Amused, but When It’s Over I Have a Feeling That I Am Not Taking Anything Away with Me. I Don’t Think That Comedy, Unless It Has a Great Deal of Irony in It, Corresponds to Anything in Life. It Makes Me Feel Vacant Just as Though I Had Gone to a Restaurant Hungry and Come Away Without Eating.
I Started Carrying a Carnation as a Way to Help Me Quit Smoking; It Has Become My Signature.
Why Do Men Always Call a Carnation a Rose?
Little-known facts about Gloria Swanson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Swanson authored an autobiography in response to claims in Rose Kennedy’s 1974 memoirs.
Her Oscar-nominated role as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard led Swanson to frequently remind audiences that she was not the character, only played her on screen.
Premiere Magazine ranked Swanson’s Norma Desmond at number 31 on its list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters.
Swanson earned around $8 million from 1918 to 1929 and spent nearly all of it; her estate at death was valued at just over $1.44 million.
She was a candidate for the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind 1939, but the part went to Vivien Leigh.
Swanson served as the visual model for the original Morticia Addams illustrations in The New Yorker 1938, when she was 39.
At MGM in the 1930s, Swanson proposed a film adaptation of Dark Victory, but Irving Thalberg rejected it; Bette Davis later made it a hit at Warner Bros. in 1939.
Swanson insisted on sleeping with her head pointing due north, often rearranging hotel rooms and friends’ guest rooms to accommodate the requirement.
The Love of Sunya 1927 was the first film shown at New York’s Roxy Theatre, and Swanson attended the premiere; in 1961, she posed in the theater’s ruins during demolition.
Swanson and Ruth Chatterton were among the first actors to receive Oscar nominations in two consecutive years: for Sadie Thompson 1928/29 and The Trespasser 1929/30.
Swanson earned two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures at 6750 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard.
As one of the silent era’s biggest box office draws, Swanson starred in lavish romantic melodramas, often directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and her look defined 1920s glamour, widely imitated.
Swanson had a biological daughter, Gloria, with second husband Herbert Somborn, and an adopted son, Joseph Patrick, whom many mistakenly believed was named after her rumored lover Joseph P. Kennedy.
In 1917, while married to Wallace Beery, Swanson had an abortion, which she later described as one of her greatest regrets.
Swanson said she detested the process of writing her autobiography.
Swanson’s often-overlooked 1964 appearance on The Hollywood Palace paired her with Buster Keaton in a comedy sketch where she played Cleopatra. She actively directed the lighting and collaborated on the stunt ending, falling backward over a wall.
After her death, Swanson’s remains were placed in the columbarium of the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City.
Her second husband, Herbert K. Somborn, operated the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood from 1926 until his death in 1934.
Swanson’s sixth husband, William Dufty, wrote Lady Sings the Blues 1972 and translated You Are All Sanpaku; Swanson influenced his interest in holistic health.
She met her third husband, Henri de la Falaise, while he interpreted for her on the set of Madame Sans-Gêne 1925 in France.
In the early 1920s, Swanson had a falling-out with friend Blanche Sweet over a man, and Sweet never forgave her.
Swanson was close friends with actor Dirk Benedict, introduced him to macrobiotics, and played his mother in the play Butterflies Are Free; Benedict considered her a mother figure.
A Republican, Swanson chaired the council for Seniors for Reagan-Bush.
Swanson cited Elliott Dexter as her favorite silent film leading man and William Holden as her favorite talkie co-star.
At age 21, Swanson gave birth to her first child, daughter Gloria Swanson Somborn, on October 7, 1920, with husband Herbert K. Somborn.
Swanson was the favorite movie star of Irene Ryan’s character Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, who often claimed they were lookalikes.
Swanson considered Madame Sans-Gêne 1925, now a lost film, her personal favorite among her movies.
Swanson and her Hollywood 1923 co-star Jacqueline Logan both passed away on April 4, 1983.
Upon her death, Swanson’s collection of health and nutrition books was sold to the Gotham Book Mart in New York.
Swanson disliked slapstick comedy, which dominated her early film roles.
In 1934, Swanson signed an MGM contract with Irving Thalberg to make three films per year, but only made Music in the Air 1934 on loan to Fox, never appearing in an MGM film.
Swanson spoke at the Project Prayer Rally in Los Angeles in 1964.
Her sixth husband, William Dufty born Arthur William Duffy, was a former truck driver turned author; they married in 1978.
Swanson’s father was Swedish, and her mother had Polish, German, and French ancestry.
After Sunset Boulevard, Swanson and William Holden stayed in touch little, but Holden recalled her visiting his Palm Springs home and leaving a note on the toilet seat signed Norma Desmond asking about Max, De Mille, and Hedda.
Swanson listed Beyond the Rocks 1922 among her favorite silent films.
At age 33, Swanson gave birth to daughter Michelle Bridget Farmer on April 5, 1932, with husband Michael Farmer.
She adopted son Joseph Patrick in 1949.
Swanson was godmother to director Dirk Wayne Summers and signed to appear in his film The Great Sex War 1969, but she and William Dufty rewrote the script; they mutually parted ways without damaging their friendship.
When Swanson asked Marion Davies if she based her Show People 1928 character on her, Davies said no, it was Mae Murray; Swanson never actually saw the film.
Actress Lois Wilson was one of Swanson’s closest friends.
She was engaged to director Marshall Neilan for a period in the 1920s.
After her Oscar-nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard, Swanson received only offers to reprise Norma Desmond, which she declined; her subsequent films failed, and her last screen role was as herself in Airport 1975.
Republic Pictures scheduled a film Lady in the News for Swanson in 1938, but it was never made.
A biography of Swanson appears in The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives 1998.
Cliff Shed’s 1928 song They All Stare At My Girl mentions Gloria Swanson.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Gloria Swanson.
Celebrities similar to Gloria Swanson — same craft, ranked by reach.
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