Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Anna Q. Nilsson

 
Actor: Anna Q. Nilsson
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Mar 30, 1888 in Ystad, Sweden
  • Died: Feb 11, 1974 in Sun City, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: teens-'20s, '40s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Romance
  • Career Highlights: L'Ile des Navires Perdus, The Sideshow of Life, Sorrell and Son
  • First Major Screen Credit: Lotus Eater (1921)

Biography

Born in Sweden, actress Anna Q. Nilsson was lured to the U.S. as a teenager by dreams of luxury and creature comforts. Her first job was as a nursemaid, but Anna learned English quickly and was able to advance herself professionally. Her striking Nordic beauty made her a much sought-after commercial model; one of the photographers with whom Nillson worked suggested that the girl was pretty enough for motion pictures, and recommended her for a one-reel epic titled Molly Pitcher (1913). She worked her way up to stardom, and her career might have continued unabated had not Nillson been seriously injured in 1925 when, while riding a horse, she was thrown against a stone wall. Nillson was an invalid for one whole year, working arduously with therapists and specialists in Sweden and Vienna until she was finally able to walk without aid. One of Nillson's comeback films was The Babe Comes Home (1927), in which she worked like a Spartan to give her own performance while trying to make baseball star Babe Ruth look good. When talking pictures came in, Nillson, whose career had been faltering since her accident, gave up films to concentrate on charity work. Occasionally she'd accept featured or bit roles, though few are worth mentioning except for her appearance as one of the silent-star "waxworks" - including Buster Keaton and H.B. Warner - in the 1950 film drama Sunset Boulevard. Anna Q. Nilsson retired in 1963 to Sun City, California. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Anna Q. Nilsson
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Anna Q Nilsson
Born Anna Quirentia Nilsson
March 30, 1888(1888-03-30)
Ystad, Sweden
Died February 11, 1974 (aged 85)
Hemet, California
Years active 1911 - 1954
Spouse(s) Guy Coombs (1916-1916)
J. Marshall Gunnerson (1923-1925)

Anna Quirentia Nilsson (March 30, 1888 – February 11, 1974) was a Swedish born American actress who achieved success in American silent movies.

Contents

Early life

Anna Q. Nilsson was born in Ystad, southern Sweden in 1888. Her middle name, "Quirentia," is derived from Saint Quirinius' Day, March 30, her date of birth. At the age of 8 her father got a job at the local sugar factory in Hasslarp, a small community outside Helsingborg in Sweden where she spent most of her school years. She did very well in school, graduating with highest marks. Due to her good grades she was hired as sales clerk in Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, unusual for a young woman from a worker's family at the time. But she had set her mind on going to America. [1]

Career

In 1905, she emigrated to the USA through Ellis Island. In the new country, the Swedish teenager started working as a nursemaid and learned English quickly. Soon she started working as a model. Already in 1907, she was named "Most beautiful woman in America". Nilsson's modeling led her to getting a role in the 1911 film Molly Pitcher. Films of special note for Anna were Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917), Soldiers of Fortune (1919), The Toll Gate and The Luck of the Irish (both 1920), and The Lotus Eater (1921).[2]

She stayed at the Kalem studio for several years, ranked behind their top star Alice Joyce. In the twenties she freelanced successfully for Paramount, First National and many other studios and reached a peak of popularity just before the advent of talkies, despite a serious horse-riding accident which kept her from filming for almost two years. In 1923, she portrayed "Cherry Malotte" in the second movie based upon Rex Beach's The Spoilers, a role that would be played in later versions by Betty Compson (1930), Marlene Dietrich (1942), and Anne Baxter (1955).[3]

'Talkies'

With the introduction of sound films, Nilsson's career went into a sharp decline, although she continued to play small, often uncredited parts in films into the 1950s. Her best known performance in a sound film is arguably her turn as "herself", referred to as one of Swanson's "waxworks" in Sunset Boulevard (1950), where she has one small line. Nilsson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures at 6150 Hollywood Boulevard. She died in Hemet, California on February 11, 1974, of heart failure.[4]

References

  1. ^ IMDb.com, Inc
  2. ^ [1]Silentgents.com
  3. ^ Anna Q. Nilsson's Silent Films
  4. ^ Anna Q. Nilsson, Swedish Star In Many Early Films, Dies at 85 (New York Times, Wednesday, February 13, 1974, p. 42)

Other Reading

  • Swanson, Gloria : Swanson on Swanson, The Making of a Hollywood Legend. Hamlyn, 1981. ISBN 0-600-20496-0

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anna Q. Nilsson

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Anna Q. Nilsson".  Read more