Stardates: Born September 29, 1904, in London, England; died 1996.
Star Sign: Libra.
Star Qualities: Glorious red hair, starchy "perfect lady" image with reserves of humor and passion.
Star Definition: "There are actors who work in movies. And then there are movie stars. She was a movie star." – Teresa Wright
Galaxy of Characters: Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (1940), Edna Kahly Gladney in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Mrs. Miniver in Mrs. Miniver (1942), Paula in Random Harvest (1942).

Beautiful, red-haired Greer Garson (1904-1996) served nobly as MGM's great lady of the 1940s, following in the footsteps of Norma Shearer and preceding Grace Kelly. Garson's image of stately matronhood played particularly well to wartime audiences, and she redeemed any sense of sanctimony with her lively Irish charm.

Garson was born in London, where she was on the professional stage from 1932. MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer discovered her for films, and she made a hit in her first film, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), for which she won the first of seven Oscar® nominations. The award itself came to her for Mrs. Miniver (1942), in which she gave her definitive screen portrayal as a London housewife facing the Blitz with a courage that inspired filmgoers of the day in both England and the U.S. Garson enjoyed another huge success with Random Harvest (1942), in which she plays the loyal wife of amnesiac Ronald Colman.

In a change of pace from Garson's usual roles where she suffered nobly, MGM experimented with the actress's image by casting her as a showgirl given to slapstick in Julia Misbehaves (1948) and a dark-haired vamp in The Law and the Lady (1951). Garson asked to be released from her contract after Her Twelve Men (1954) in which played a female version of the schoolteacher in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Her final Oscar® nomination came for Warner Bros.' Sunrise at Campobello (1960), in which she was a convincing Eleanor Roosevelt. Garson returned to MGM for a supporting role in The Singing Nun (1966), playing the wise Mother Superior to Debbie Reynolds' impetuous title character.

The second of Garson's three husbands was Richard Ney, who had played her son in Mrs. Miniver. Her final marriage was to U.S. oil magnate Buddy Fogelson, with whom she retired happily to New Mexico.

by Roger Fristoe