Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was one of Hollywood’s favourite screen goddesses whose dignified acting style earned her one Oscar and six Oscar nominations.
Greer always claimed she was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, in 1908, though it is quite likely she was born in London in 1904. However, after her father died when she was just two years old, she spent every summer at her grandparents’ home in Ireland.
In 1921 Greer entered London University and graduated with a BA in 1926. She was a keen amateur actress and spent most of her free time performing small roles for a local company, while by day she worked in the research library of an advertising agency. In 1931 she was accepted into the Birmingham Repertory Company.
Six years and one ill-advised marriage later, the auburn-haired actress was spotted by movie mogul Louis B Mayer and he immediately signed her up for MGM – Greer was on her way to stardom. After a shaky start in Hollywood, Greer landed the part of Mrs Chips in the whimsical Goodbye Mr Chips. She did not think much of the role or of her own acting in it, but the film was released to glowing reviews and critical acclaim for herself. When she lost out in the Oscars to none other than Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind, Greer Garson knew she was playing in the big league.
More triumphs followed, including Pride and Prejudice (in which the thirty-six-year-old Greer had the cheek to play a twenty-year-old Elizabeth Bennett) and Blossoms (in which she was again nominated for an Oscar). But the crowning glory of Greer’s acting career was her 1942 role as the eponymous heroine in Mrs Miniver, for which she walked away with an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1943 there was a mini-scandal when, having initially objected to the character of Mrs Miniver being old enough to have a college-age son, Greer began to date the actor who played him, Richard Ney. The thirty-nine-year-old veteran married the mid-twenties rookie the same summer.
Greer carried on working throughout World War II. Random Harvest, Madame Curie, Mrs Parkington and The Valley of Decision (third, fourth and fifth Oscar nominations respectively) were released in quick succession. However, there were rumblings of discontent from the critics: Greer was becoming typecast as a dignified, classy matron. In 1945, despite relief at the war’s end, things went bad for Greer. The studio system, which had been more than kind to her, gave way to a less ‘star’-centred policy with smaller budgets and a penchant for gritty on-screen realism. Her young husband divorced her in 1946 and this was followed by two critical flops, Adventure and Desire Me. However, Greer managed to rehabilitate herself in a comedy, Julia Misbehaves, which was received with rave reviews.
During the filming of Julia Misbehaves (1948), Greer met a Texan oil and cattle millionaire named Elijah ‘Buddy’ Fogelson. In 1949, after completion of That Forsythe Woman, the unlikely pair were married in Santa Fe. Greer loved New Mexico and loved ranching – she even bought and entered her own steers in competitions.
Despite this idyllic domestic life, throughout the 1950s and 1960s Greer refused to retire from acting and hung grimly onto the remnants of her career. In a sea of mediocrity, there were some honourable exceptions: Julius Caesar in 1953; Sunrise at Campobello in 1960, which garnered her sixth and final Oscar nomination; The Singing Nun in 1966; and The Happiest Millionaire in 1967. Her spirited return to the stage in late 1957 in the hit musical Auntie Mame earned her lasting respect from audiences and critics.
By the 1960s Greer was immersing herself and Buddy’s millions in charity work. In 1965, in recognition of this, the College of Santa Fe dedicated the Greer Garson Theatre to her, and later awarded her an honorary doctorate. It was in this theatre, in 1975, that she gave her last stage performance in The Madwoman of Challiot.
In December 1987, Buddy Fogelson died in Dallas, Texas, with Greer by his side. Although his widow still loved Santa Fe and continued with her charities both there and in Texas, she was advised, for health reasons, to move to Dallas. In 1992, after a particularly generous bequest from the Fogelson Estate, the Southern Methodist University in Dallas opened a second Greer Garson Theatre. The same year, Greer moved into a suite at the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital so her health could be monitored continually. She died there four years later, surrounded by flowers and fans – a Hollywood legend to the last.