MRS. MINIVER (Drama)

Greer Garson won her Best Actress award for playing Mrs. Miniver, a story about an English family's adjustments during World War 2.

ABOUT GREER GARSON (1908 - 96)

Greer Garson was an Anglo-Irish leading lady with London stage experience.  She jumped ship from working at an advertising agency to acting, at age 24.  She began acting in films in 1934. 

In the 1939 movie, GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, she plays the wife of the school teacher and title character, who died in childbirth.  She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role, the first of 8 nominations. 

The next year, in 1940, she played the leading role of Elizabeth Bennet in the film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.  Greer Garson was nominated for her 1941 portrayal of a mother who loses her child at a young age and becomes a children's cause crusader, in BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST.

Garson won an Oscar for her portrayal of William Wyler's 1941World War II movie, MRS. MINIVER, the story of a matriarch keeping strong and guiding her family through trials of wartime Britain. The next year she played the title role in MADAM CURIE, the story of the French scientist who discovered radiation.  Greer Garson was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. 

The next year Greer Garson was nominated again for her work in the movie, MRS. PARKINGTON, the story of the fortunes of a woman who started out in life as a hotel worker in the Old West and became a New York society maven upon her marriage to Mr. Parkington.   One year later, in 1945, Greer Garson played with Gregory Peck in THE VALLEY OF DECISION, in which she plays a young woman who becomes involved with the rich mining family responsible for her miner father's disability, when she goes to work for them as a domestic.

In 1960, Greer Garson played Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO, the story of the struggle to overcome polio, by man who would become president and create the New Deal during the Great Depression..  After this film, Garson did about one project every other year until her retirement in her late 70's.

Greer Garson's other Best Actress Nominations were for:

GOODBYE MR. CHIPS (39)
BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST (41)
MADAME CURIE (43)
MRS. PARKINGTON (44)
VALLEY OF DECISION (45)
SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO (60)

Greer Garson's other credits include:

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
RANDOM HARVEST
ADVENTURE
THAT FORSYTE WOMAN
THE MINIVER STORY
SCANDAL AT SCOURIE
JULIUS CAESAR
PEPE
THE SINGING NUN
THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE

Greer Garson's television credits include:

LITTLE WOMEN.