Nils asther autobiography examples

On his thirtieth birthday, he was alone and wrote himself a self-deprecating message:. Not that you deserve it, but may your future become light and fun, with great success. Well, why not world renown to satisfy your vanity? Beautiful girls, a thousand of them, and coins in large quantities, and good health so that you can enjoy these creature comforts.

May all your dreams come true, even the idiotic ones. Cheers to you, old boy. I am not gay and amusing and social. I am ingrown, introspective, and analytical. To speak of things that affect me deeply and to speak of them honestly is a burden. Fortunately for him, or more accurately fortunately for his publicists, the United States was at that time growing quite a fascination over the quiet nature of some of their white immigrated stars.

This part of his nature was highlighted to give him a mysterious edge and make him seem foreign. He had to be careful to never seem too foreign, of course, as he realized after he received backlash for speaking French with a French waiter. While it is true that he was an introverted figure in many ways, that by no means should suggest he was ever subtle.

He was a man who climbed out of a window in an attempt to preserve an acting teacher's honour and decided to buy a cabin in the middle of the woods for himself and Greta Garbo in the spur of the moment. He did this without also buying furniture, forcing both to sleep on the floor. He was meant to seem cold and aloof to the public, a popular look for Scandinavian actors at the time, but he was also meant to be a family man.

Ending up in a lavender marriage marriage in which the partners have different, generally incompatible, sexualities with Vivian Duncan, he found himself unhappy and refused to keep up the charade for long. After rumours began to spread as to why he had left a wife and child, Hollywood fixers responded by allowing an article to be published speculating about queerness.

While queerness might be begrudgingly tolerated in Hollywood at the time, it was not to be encouraged, and it most certainly was not to be public. Despite the concerted efforts of those around him, the marriage ended after only two years. His heritage was another constant tipping point for him. Upon the introduction of talkies, he was forced to hire a vocal coach.

At times, however, his accent was used as a stand-in for a Chinese accent, such as his role as a Chinese man in The Bitter Tea of General Yen. The role was intended for someone of Chinese descent but was given to him instead. The director Frank Capra discussed the decision later. I knew what I did not want—a well-known star made up as [a Chinese man].

I looked for a tall, overpowering, real Chinese. In Asther was forced to seek work in England after breach of contract lead to him being blacklisted.

Nils asther autobiography examples

Although allowed back in , his career in Hollywood dwindled throughout the s, and he soon returned to Sweden, where he remained an active actor on stage and television until his death in He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Arrowhead is a man-made lake, but the mountain setting disguises its origin a great dam prevents the annual spring thaw from being lost to the desert below.

Greta slept on the floor in the downstairs parlor; Nils commiserated with the lumber in the attic. It was a confusing weekend. He began to quarrel with Greta, who became sad, not knowing how to put a stop to it, and their weekend ended on this bittersweet note. On location in Catalina with Nils Asther, she was overheard berating the actor for grabbing her so roughly.

It had been reported that Nils Asther's name topped the list of the possible costars, but it was a relative unknown, Theo Shall, who won the assignment in the German Version of Anna Christie. Garbo and Asther never appeared in a film again. Acevedo Greg -. He asked Garbo to marry him for the thrid time. Garbo's "Sailor". Although the film industry in the s accepted gay actors with little reservation, the actors had to remain discreet about their sexual orientation.

This turbulent marriage produced one daughter and resulted, after much media discussion, in a divorce in In this volume, he mentions relationships he had in the s with director Mauritz Stiller and Swedish author Hjalmar Bergman. Asther also had a long-term relationship with actor and stuntman Ken DuMain, whom he met on Hollywood Boulevard in the early s.

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Type your email…. Asther and Garbo had known each other in Sweden, and finding themselves relatively new to a foreign land they spent a great deal of time together. They often visited a friend's ranch outside Hollywood where they could relax, ride horses, go climbing, or swim at Lake Arrowhead. In during filming on location in Catalina The Single Standard with Nils Asther, she was overheard berating the actor for grabbing her so roughly.

Rumors exist from the early s that Nils had relationships with Swedish director Mauritz Stiller and Swedish writer Hjalmar Bergman and with other male colleagues. Asther mentions some of this in his memoirs. According to Ken DuMain, he met Asther on Hollywood Boulevard in the early s, and they enjoyed a long-term relationship. Their daughter's nationality was debated, and Asther offered to apply for American citizenship if it would help the process of getting their daughter into America.

Right from the start, Asther and Duncan's marriage proved stormy and became fodder for the tabloids. They divorced in Asther's memoir [ 10 ] was published posthumously in Swedish. The afterword was written by Iwo Wiklander. The middle of the book, written by Asther, covers the years between his birth and his return to Sweden in Iwo Wiklander claimed in later interviews that Nils Asther was intent on erasing parts of his life before his death, and that much material in his autobiography was exaggerated — or completely made up — to make a more interesting story.

She did however, introduce Nils to her family, and to the Swedish painter Nils Dardel and his freethinking artistic circle. Nils Asther died on October 13, , at a hospital in Farsta , Stockholm. In , Asther was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star at Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the film industry. Contents move to sidebar hide.