1906-1988
Norwegian born actress Greta Nissen was born Grethe Rüzt-Nissen on this day Oslo. As a young child she studied ballet seriously, becoming a professional ballerina in 1922 at just the age of 16. She made her film debut the very next year in the Lau Lauritzen directed Danish comedy Daarskab, dyd og driverter (September 1923) in the leading role basically playing herself in the role of "Grethe." She also appeared in another Lauritzen film that same year: Lille Lise let-paa-taa (March 1923) as "Lise." Nissen made her Broadway debut in 1924, which is how she wound up in American made films in 1925. Jesse Lasky personally had a hand in signing her to Paramount after seeing her perform in New York. She was promptly cast as the star of Lost: A Wife in (July 1925), a William de Mille and Clara Beranger film. Most of her films at Paramount were romantic comedies or dramas in which she was near or at the top of the ticket. In early 1926 she was "loaned out" to Universal to appear in the John McDermott directed romantic drama The Love Thief with Norman Kerry and Marc McDermott (no relation); she was replacing another Greta in the part of Princess Flavia Eugenia Marie--Greta Garbo. In her time at Paramount she acted along side the likes of Adolphe Menjou, Bessie Love, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Florence Vidor and Ricardo Cortez. In 1928, she moved over to Fox Film and was cast in Fazil, a partial silent directed by Howard Hawks; this is important to note, not only because it was her first film at Fox, but also because it lead directly to her being cast in the Howard Hughes film Hell's Angels. It was her involvement with the insanely large production in 1928 that meant that she didn't make many other film appearances between then and the early 1930's. She did appear in the comedy The Butter and Egg Man with Jack Muhall in 1928, but that was it. Hughes actually finished Hell's Angels as a fully silent film, but with the coming of sound systems at the majors, Hughes decided to re-shoot the film for sound, pushing the release date to 1930. Nissen had a thick Norwegian accent and Hughes famously replaced her with Jean Harlow. For many, her near appearance in the film is all they have heard of Nissen. As a result of her time spent on the Hughes project, her actual film credits jump in years from 1928 to 1931, when she appeared in the Fox comedy Women of All Nations (May 1931) with Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe. The following year on the set of the mystery The Silent Witness she met and fell for a fellow cast member; she appeared with Lionel Atwill and Weldon Heyburn, who would become her first husband. In 1933, she left the U.S. and relocated in England; while there she continued her film career. Red Wagon, released in December of 1933, was her first British film performance. In 1937, she retired from acting altogether. Her last film was the British thriller Danger in Paris (January 1937) directed by Paul L. Stein (who had directed Red Wagon). She remarried in 1941 and had a child, a son Tor Bruce Nissen Eckert. She and her husband eventually relocated back to California, purchasing a home in Montecito. She died in that home from complications due to Parkinson's on the 15th of May in 1988 at the age of 83. She was cremated. Nissen was extremely photogenic and was a favorite for staged promotionals and lobby cards. Though she was never a model (as far as I know), she certainly could have been!
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