Actress Greer Garson dies after lengthy illness
April 6, 1996
Web posted at: 9:15 a.m. ESTDALLAS, Texas (AP) -- Greer Garson, the vibrant, gallant leading lady in films such as "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and "Mrs. Miniver," died Saturday of heart failure.
Miss Garson died peacefully at about 1:30 a.m. at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital, said John L. Roach, a friend and attorney for the family.
Some reference books list her age as 87, but Roach and a hospital spokeswoman said she was 92, giving her birth date as Sept. 29, 1903.
The Irish-born, red-haired Miss Garson won an Academy Award for "Mrs. Miniver," the 1942 drama about a British housewife courageously guiding her family through the blitz bombings of World War II. She was nominated for Oscars for six other roles, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Marie Curie. (1M QuickTime movie)
In a 1990 Associated Press interview, she deplored the violence of many modern films and added: "I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it's reflecting life -- toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things -- and not tilted down to the gutter part of the time, into the troubled vistas of conflict."
In recent years, she made her mark as a philanthropist, donating millions to colleges and other institutions. Among her grants was one for the $10 million Greer Garson Theater and film archive at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Her late husband was the oilman E.E. "Buddy" Fogelson. They maintained homes in Dallas and Los Angeles and a ranch near Pecos, New Mexico.
Born in County Down, Ireland, to a family with no theater background, Miss Garson performed Christmas plays in her home and gave recitations in the town hall at age 4. She wanted to become a teacher but worked for Encyclopaedia Britannica and an advertising agency instead.
After graduating from the University of London and studying at the University of Grenoble, Miss Garson made her professional acting debut in 1932 at the Birmingham Repertory Theater.
In a 1937 visit to England, MGM boss Louis B. Mayer saw her on the London stage and promptly signed her to a film contract.
She ended up doing virtually nothing for a year. "It was the most difficult and unhappiest year of my life," she once said. "I decided once I was fortunate enough to get away from Hollywood, it would take wild horses to drag me back."
She did escape -- returning to England for "Goodbye Mr. Chips." Miss Garson won acclaim for her depiction of the woman who draws the scholarly title character, played by Robert Donat, beyond the walls of academia. It brought her her first Oscar nomination.
Upon returning to the United States, Miss Garson made 1939's little-known comedy "Remember?" with Robert Taylor. And then her career took off.
She appeared in "Pride and Prejudice" with Laurence Olivier, with whom she had worked in London theater; "Blossoms in the Dust" with Walter Pidgeon; and "When Ladies Meet" starring Joan Crawford.
When Norma Shearer turned down the title role in "Mrs. Miniver," Miss Garson stepped in and went on to take the Oscar.
She lost many of her personal belongings -- including the Oscar trophy -- in a Los Angeles fire in the late 1980s. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued her a replacement statuette.
Other Oscar nominations came for "Mrs. Parkington," "Blossoms in the Dust," "Madame Curie," "The Valley of Decision," and "Sunrise at Campobello," her 1960 comeback film in which she played Mrs. Roosevelt. Only three actresses have been nominated more than seven times: Katharine Hepburn with 12, Bette Davis with 10 and Geraldine Page with eight.
About the time of her Oscar triumph, she married for the second time, to Richard Ney, who played her son in "Mrs. Miniver." Like her first marriage with Abbot Slenson, a British civil servant, that marriage ended in divorce.
In 1949, she married Fogelson; the marriage lasted until his death in 1987.
Miss Garson also performed on stage, taking over Rosalind Russell's role in Broadway's "Auntie Mame" in 1958. On television, she was seen on ABC's "The Love Boat."
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