Gloria Swanson was born Gloria May Josephine Swanson in Chicago, Illinois on March 27, 1899. Swanson spent some of her childhood in Key West, FL and San Juan, Puerto Rico, but the majority of it she passed in Chicago. Her acting career began in 1914 and spanned into the 1970s.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00154/hrc-00154.html

Working with such directors as Cecil B. DeMille and Billy Wilder over her career, she acted in both silent films and those with sound. She was nominated for Academy Awards on three separate occasions, and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both motion pictures and television.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00154/hrc-00154.html Besides acting, she also began and ran an invention and patents company, designed a line of clothing, and was a sculptor and painter.http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/summerresearch/003314.shtml

Gloria Swanson’s movie career began in Chicago in 1914 and she rose in prominence with roles in such movies as ‘’Male and Female” in 1919 and ‘’The Affaris of Anatol’’ in 1921.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00154/hrc-00154.html In 1925 she left Paramount Pictures for United Artists in order to produce her own films. Two of them, Sadie Thompson (1928) and The Trespasser (1929) earned her Oscar nominations. In 1938 she moved to New York City and during World War II started and ran a company that developed inventions and filed patents.http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/summerresearch/003314.shtml

Her return to prominence in the film industry did not happen until 1950 when the Billy Wilder-directed movie Sunset Boulevard was released.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00154/hrc-00154.html The film earned her another Oscar nomination. She made three more films after ‘’Sunset Boulevard’’ and also acted on stage and on television. She also pursued her other art, clothing design, and nutrition-focused careers.http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/summerresearch/003314.shtml She died in New York City on April 4, 1983.http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00154/hrc-00154.html

• 1918: The Admirable Crichton, Society for Sale, Her Decision, Station Content, You Can't Believe Everything, Everywoman's Husband, Shifting Sands, The Secret Codehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0841797/#Self

• 1919: Don't Change Your Husband, For Better, For Worse, 'Male and Female

• 1920: Why Change Your Wife?, Something to Think About

• 1921: The Great Moment, The Affairs of Anatole, Under the Lash, Don't Tell Everything

• 1922: Her Husband's Trademark, Her Gilded Cage, Beyond the Rocks, The Impossible Mrs. Bellew, My American Wife

• 1923: Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, Prodigal Daughters, Zaza

• 1924: The Humming Bird, A Societal Scandal, Manhandled, Her Love Story, Wages of Virtue, Madame Sans-Gêne

• 1925: The Coast of Folly, Stage Struck

• 1926: The Untamed Lady, Fine Manners

• 1927: The Love of Sunya

• 1928: Sadie Thompson

• 1929: Queen Kelly, The Tresspasser

• 1930: What A Widow!

• 1931: Indiscreet, Tonight or Never

• 1933: Perfect Understanding

• 1934: Music in the Air

• 1941: Father Takes A Wife

• 1950: Sunset Boulevard

• 1952: Three for Bedroom C

• 1956: Nero's Mistress

"All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up....." — Sunset Boulevard (1950) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043014/quotes

"A lot of people, you know, ask me if "Sunset Boulevard" was my own life-- which is rather odd. I've no dead bodies in my pool swimming pool and a few other things haven't yet happened to me." — The Mike Wallace Interview, April 28, 1957 http://solstice.ischool.utexas.edu/tmwi/index.php/Gloria_Swanson