However, personal problems and changing tastes saw her popularity wane during the 1930s when she moved into theater and television. Today she is best known for her role as Norma Desmond, a faded silent film star, in the critically acclaimed film Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Early life
Gloria Josephine May Swanson was born in a small house in Chicago, Illinois in 1899 to Adelaide (née Klanowski) and Joseph Theodore Swanson, a soldier. She attended Hawthorne Scholastic Academy. Her father was from a strict Lutheran Swedish American family, and her mother was of German, French and Polish ancestry.Although born in Chicago because of her father's attachment to the Army, they moved frequently and she ended up spending most of her childhood on the island of Puerto Rico and in Key West, Florida. It was not her intention to enter show business, but on a whim one of her aunts took her to a small film company in Chicago called Essanay Studios for a visit and Swanson was asked to come back to work as an extra.After a few months as an extra working with among others, Charlie Chaplin, and making $13.50 a week, she left school to work full time at the studio. Soon though her parents separated and she and her mother moved to California.
Films
Gloria Swanson in a frame or production still from the 1919 film Don't Change Your Husband.
Gloria Swanson in a production still from the 1920 film Why Change Your Wife?.
Gloria Swanson, 1921
Swanson moved to California in 1916 to appear in Mack Sennett's Keystone comedies opposite Bobby Vernon, and in 1919 she signed with Paramount Pictures and worked often with Cecil B. DeMille, who turned her into a romantic lead in such films as Don't Change Your Husband (1919), Male and Female (1919) with the famous scene posing as "the Lion's Bride" with a real lion, Why Change Your Wife? (1920), Something to Think About (1920), and The Affairs of Anatol (1921).
In the space of two years, Swanson rocketed to stardom and was one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood. Swanson later appeared in a series of films directed by Sam Wood. She starred in Beyond the Rocks (1922) with her long-time friend Rudolph Valentino. (Long believed to be a lost film, Beyond the Rocks was rediscovered in 2004 in a private collection in The Netherlands and is now available on DVD.)
Swanson continued to make costume drama films for the next few years. So successful were her films for Paramount that the studio was afraid of losing her and gave in to many of her whims and wishes.[7]
During her heyday, audiences went to her films not only for her performances, but also to see her wardrobe. Frequently ornamented with beads, jewels, peacock and ostrich feathers, haute couture of the day or extravagant period pieces, one would hardly suspect that she was barely five feet (1.52 m) tall. Her fashion, hair styles, and jewels were copied around the world. She was the screen's first clothes horse and was becoming one of the most famous and photographed women in the world.
In 1925, she starred in the first French-American co-production, Madame Sans-Gêne, directed by Léonce Perret. Filming was allowed for the first time at many of the historic sites relating to Napoleon. While it was well received at the time, no prints are known to exist, and it is unfortunately considered to be a lost film. During the production of Madame Sans-Gêne, Swanson met her third husband Henri, Marquis de la Falaise, who had been hired to be her translator during the film's production. After four months' residence in France, she returned to the United States as European nobility, now known as the Marquise. She got a huge welcome home with parades in both New York and Los Angeles. She appeared in a 1925 short produced by Lee DeForest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
She made a number of films for Paramount, among them The Coast of Folly, Stage Struck and Fine Manners. In 1927, she decided to turn down a million dollar a year contract with Paramount to join the newly-created United Artists, where she was her own boss and could make the films she wanted, with whom she wanted, and when.
Her first independent film, The Love of Sunya, was directed by Albert Parker, and based on the play The Eyes of Youth by Max Marcin and Charles Guernon. Produced by and starring Swanson, it also stars John Boles and Pauline Garon. It is the story of a young woman granted the ability to see into her future, including her future with different men.
The story had been filmed previously as Eyes of Youth starring Clara Kimball Young (that production was also directed by Albert Parker and was responsible for the discovery of Rudolph Valentino by June Mathis.) The production was marred by several problems, mainly a suitable cameraman to deal with the film's intricate double exposures, as Swanson was not used to taking charge, and filming took place in New York. It premiered at the grand opening of the Roxy Theatre in New York City on March 11, 1927. (Swanson was pictured in the ruins of the Roxy on October 14, 1960, during the demolition of the theater, in a famous photo taken by Time-Life photographer Eliot Elisofon and published in Life magazine.)
The production had been a disaster and Swanson felt its success would be mediocre at best. On the advice of Joseph Schenck, she relented and returned to Hollywood, whereupon Schenck begged her to film something more commercial. She agreed but ended up filming the more controversial Sadie Thompson instead.
Sadie Thompson
Feeling she would never have as much artistic freedom and independence as she had at that moment, Swanson decided she "wanted to make my Gold Rush." Schenck pleaded with her to do a commercially successful film like The Last of Mrs. Cheyney. Swanson felt it too formulaic, and decided to call upon director Raoul Walsh, who was signed with Fox Film Corporation at the time.Walsh had been known for bringing controversial material to film, and at their first meeting suggested the John Colton and Clemence Randolph play Rain (1923). The play had been based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham in 1921 titled Miss Thompson. Swanson had seen Jeanne Eagels perform the role twice, and enjoyed it.
However, because of its content, producing the film under the tight restrictions of the Hays Code would be almost impossible. The play was on the unofficial blacklist, and had quietly been banned from filmmaking a year earlier. To try and avoid issues with the code, Swanson and Walsh decided to leave out profanity, rename 'Reverend Davidson' 'Mr. Davidson', and claim it was in the interest of morality to produce the picture as Irving Thalberg had produced The Scarlet Letter (1926) at MGM.
Swanson invited Will Hays over for luncheon and summarized the plot, naming the author and the sticking points. According to Swanson, Hays made a verbal promise that he would have no problem with the making of such a film. Swanson set about getting the rights to the play by having Schenck pretend to buy it in the name of United Artists, never to be used. Thus they were able to obtain the story rights for $60,000 instead of the original $100,000. When news broke concerning just what was intended with the play, the three authors threatened to sue. However, Swanson later contacted Maugham about rights to a sequel, and he offered to grant them for $25,000. Maugham claimed Fox had asked about a sequel at the same time Swanson had bought the original story's rights. The sequel was to follow the further exploits of Sadie in Australia, but was never made.
Swanson and Walsh set about writing the script, and discreetly placed an ad announcing the film, thinking no one noticed, as Charles Lindbergh had just completed his historic transatlantic flight. However, the press picked up on it and sensationalized the story. United Artists received a threatening two-page telegram from the MPAA signed by all its members, including Fox (Walsh's studio) and Hays himself. In addition, the rest of the signors owned several thousand movie houses, and if they refused to screen the film it could be a financial disaster. This was the first time Swanson had heard the name of Joseph P. Kennedy, with whom she would later have an affair, and who would arrange financing for her next few pictures, including Queen Kelly (1929).
Swanson was angered by the response, as she felt those very studios had produced questionable films themselves, and were jealous at not having the chance to produce Rain. After another threatening telegram, she decided to first appeal to the MPAA, and then the newspapers. She only heard back from Marcus Loew, who promised to appeal on her behalf, and since he owned a chain of theatres this eased some of her concerns. Figuring the silence meant the matter had been dropped, Swanson began filming on Sadie Thompson, which already had a quarter of a million dollars invested in it.
Before casting began, the young Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. wanted to audition for the role of Handsome O'Hara. However, Swanson felt he was too young and not right for the role. Lionel Barrymore had been first picked to play Davidson but was thought to be too ill at the time, though he did eventually win the role. Barrymore wore the same outfit for an entire week, aggravating Swanson. She asked some of the crew to tell him to change and wash, which he did indeed do. Aside from this, Swanson was happy with his performance. Walsh hadn't appeared in front of a camera in 8 years, and feared he wouldn't be able to both direct and act at the same time. However, two days into filming, his fears had disappeared.
Much of the filming took place on Santa Catalina Island near Long Beach, California. Swanson took ill shortly after, and met a doctor who started her life-long love of macrobiotic diets. A week into shooting, Sam Goldwyn called cameraman George Barnes away. Swanson was furious, but the loan contract had allowed Goldwyn to call him away as he pleased. Not wanting to let a hundred extras sit around for days, Swanson and Walsh tried to hire two more cameramen, but both were unsatisfactory. Mary Pickford had offered the services of her favorite cameraman Charles Rosher, who was called in, but despite doing a decent job couldn't match Barnes' work. Through Loew, MGM loaned Oliver Marsh, who completed the picture.
The cameraman fiasco was extremely costly to the production, yet shooting continued. With the picture half finished, it was already well over budget, and Schenck was wary, as Swanson's first picture had also been over budget and underperformed. Swanson talked with her advisors and sold her home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and offered to sell her New York City penthouse as well.
Despite reports that "dirty" words can be read on the characters' lips, Swanson claims the censors went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. However, Swanson admitted that one line she was shouting at Davidson went, "You'd rip the wings off of a butterfly, you son of a bitch!" when recounting a conversation with Walsh later in life. If the word rain was used in a title, they asked that it be removed. They also wanted to change Davidson's name to something else, but Swanson and Walsh refused.
Sadie Thompson Lobby Card 1928
The film was nominated for awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Gloria Swanson) and Best Cinematography. Swanson did not attend the ceremony, and always felt it was like "comparing apples to oranges".
Contemporary reviews called it racy but excellent, and especially praised Swanson's acting.
Today, everything but the final reel (stopping just after Davidson finds Sadie in his room) exists in good condition.
Queen Kelly
One of the most infamous of Hollywood's unfinished films, Queen Kelly (1929), was directed by Erich von Stroheim and produced by Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., father of the future President John F. Kennedy. Produced in 1928-29, it starred Swanson in the title role, with Walter Byron and Seena Owen.It is the story of Prince Wolfram, who is betrothed to mad Queen Regina V of Kronberg. On maneuvers (as punishment for consorting with other women), he spies Kelly walking with the other students of a convent. Enthralled by her beauty, he kidnaps her that night from the convent, takes her to his room and professes his love for her. When the Queen finds them together the next morning, she whips Kelly and throws her out of the castle. Regina then puts Wolfram in prison for his refusal to marry the Queen. Kelly goes to German East Africa to visit her dying Aunt, and is forced to marry the disgusting Jan. The Aunt dies after the wedding, and Kelly refuses to live with Jan, becoming the head of her aunt's brothel. Her extravagances and style earn her the name Queen Kelly.
Production of the costly film was shut down after complaints by Swanson about von Stroheim and the general direction the film was taking. Though the European scenes were full of innuendo, and featured a philandering prince and a sex-crazed queen, the scenes set in Africa were grim and, Swanson felt, distasteful. In later interviews, Swanson claimed that she had been misled by the script, which referred to her character arriving in, and taking over, a dance hall; looking at the rushes, it was obvious the 'dance hall' was actually a brothel.
Stroheim was fired from the film, and the African storyline was scrapped. Swanson and Kennedy still wanted to salvage the European material, as it had been so costly and time-consuming, and had potential market value. An alternate ending was shot on November 24, 1931. In this ending, directed by Swanson and photographed by Gregg Toland, Prince Wolfram is shown visiting the palace. A nun leads him to the chapel, where Kelly's body lies in state. This has been called the "Swanson ending." The film was not theatrically released in the United States, but it was shown in Europe and South America with the Swanson ending tacked on. This was due to a clause in Stroheim's contract.
A short extract of the film appears in Sunset Boulevard (1950), representing an old silent picture Swanson's character Norma Desmond—herself a silent movie star—had made. Von Stroheim is also a primary character in Sunset Boulevard as her ex-director, ex-husband, and current butler. By some accounts, von Strohiem suggested the clip be used for its heavy irony. This was the first time audiences in the U.S. were allowed to see any footage of the infamous collaboration.
In the 1960s, it was shown on television with the Swanson ending, along with a taped introduction and conclusion in which Swanson spoke about the history of the project. By 1985, Kino International had acquired the rights to the movie and restored two versions: one that uses still photos and subtitles in an attempt to wrap up the storyline, and the other the European "suicide ending" version.
Talkies
To try and recover from the Queen Kelly fiasco, Swanson jumped into making talkies, even singing in The Trespasser (1929), Indiscreet (1931), and Music in the Air (1934).The Trespasser tells the story of a "kept woman" who maintains a lavish lifestyle. It stars Swanson, Robert Ames, Purnell Pratt, Henry B. Walthall, and Wally Albright. The movie was written and directed by Edmund Goulding and released by United Artists. It earned Swanson an Academy Award nomination in her talkie debut. It was filmed simultaneously in a silent and a talking version, and was a smash hit.
The Trespasser was an important film for Swanson, following the disastrous Queen Kelly and the hit Sadie Thompson, and garnered Swanson her second Oscar nomination. Sadly for Swanson, The Trespasser proved to be one of her only two hit talkies, the other being Sunset Boulevard, made over 20 years later. Subsequent follow-ups like What a Widow!, Indiscreet, Tonight or Never, Perfect Understanding, and Music in the Air all proved to be box-office flops. Despite the disappointments following The Trespasser, Swanson was well remembered by Billy Wilder, a writer on Music in the Air, when he was casting the part of Norma Desmond in his masterpiece Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Even though she managed to make the transition to talkies, as her career began to decline, Swanson relocated permanently to New York City in 1938, where she began an inventions and patents company called Multiprizes, which kept her occupied during the years of World War II. This small company had the sole purpose of rescuing Jewish scientists and inventors from war-torn Europe and bringing them to the United States. She helped many escape, and some useful inventions came from the enterprise. She made another film for RKO Radio Pictures in 1941, began appearing in the legitimate theatre, and starred in her own television show in 1948.
Never one to dwell on the past, she threw herself into painting and sculpting, writing a syndicated column, touring in summer stock, engaging in political activism, radio and television work, clothing and accessories design and marketing, and making occasional appearances on the big screen. But it was not until 1950 when Sunset Boulevard was released (earning her yet another Academy award nomination), that she achieved mass recognition again.
Sunset Boulevard
Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
This has since been called the greatest film about Hollywood. Many of the lines from the film have become pop-culture mainstays, and are often used to describe Swanson herself; among them: "The Greatest Star of them all," "I am big; it's the pictures that got small," "We didn't need dialogue, we had faces," and "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." She received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination, but lost to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday.
She received several subsequent acting offers but turned most of them down, saying they tended to be pale imitations of Norma Desmond. Her last major Hollywood motion picture role was the poorly received Three for Bedroom "C" in 1952. In 1956, Swanson made Nero's Mistress, which also starred Vittorio de Sica and Brigitte Bardot. Her final screen appearance was as herself in Airport 1975.
Though Swanson only made three films after Sunset Boulevard, she starred in numerous stage and television productions during her remaining years. She was active in various business ventures, travelled extensively, wrote articles, columns, and an autobiography, painted and sculpted, and became a passionate advocate of various health and nutrition topics. In 1966 The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, honored Swanson with a career film retrospective titled "A Tribute to Gloria Swanson" that screened some of her films over a few days.
[Television and theater
Swanson with Fred MacMurray in the promo of My Three Sons, 1965.
Through the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, Swanson appeared on many and various talk and variety shows such as The Carol Burnett Show in 1973 and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to recollect on her films and to lampoon them as well. She was twice the "mystery guest" on What's My Line. She acted in "Behind the Locked Door" on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1964, and in the same year was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance in Burke's Law. A guest appearance on The Dick Cavett Show with Janis Joplin (fall 1970) was another memorable TV appearance.
Her most famous television appearance, however, is a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies titled "The Gloria Swanson Story," in which she plays herself. In the episode, the Clampetts mistakenly believe Swanson is destitute, and decide to finance a comeback movie for her—in a silent film. Her last acting role, aside from playing herself in Airport 1975, was in the made-for-TV horror film Killer Bees (1974).
After near-retirement from film, Swanson appeared in many plays throughout her later life, beginning in the 1940s. She toured with A Goose for the Gander, Reflected Glory, and Let Us Be Gay. After her success with Sunset Boulevard, she starred on Broadway in a revival of Twentieth Century (1951) with Jose Ferrer, and in Nina with David Niven. Her last major stage role was in the 1971 Broadway production of Butterflies Are Free at the Booth Theatre.
Personal life
In her apartment in New York, 1972
In early 1980, Swanson's 520-page autobiography, Swanson on Swanson, was published by Random House and became a national best-seller. It was translated into French, Italian and Swedish editions. That same year, she also designed a stamp cachet for the United Nations Postal Administration and chaired the New York chapter of "Seniors for Reagan-Bush".
She was a lifelong member of the Lutheran church; her father was of Swedish Lutheran descent and he too was a member of the same church.
Marriages and relationships
Throughout her life and her many marriages, Swanson was always known as Miss Swanson. Though she legally took the names of her husbands, her own personality and fame always overshadowed them.Swanson's first husband was the actor Wallace Beery (1885–1949), whom she married on her 17th birthday. In her autobiography Swanson on Swanson, she wrote that Beery raped her on their wedding night. Beery also impregnated Swanson in 1917. Not wanting her to have the child, he tricked her into drinking a concoction that induced an abortion. Though they still worked together at Sennett they separated and finally divorced two years later.
She married Herbert K. Somborn (1881–1934), then president of Equity Pictures Corporation and later the owner of the Brown Derby restaurant, in 1919. Their daughter, Gloria Swanson Somborn (October 7, 1920—December 28, 2000), was born in 1920. Their divorce, finalized in January 1925, was sensational and led to Gloria having a "morals clause" added to her studio contract. Somborn accused her of adultery with 13 men including Cecil B. DeMille, Rudolph Valentino, and Marshall Neilan. During their divorce Swanson wanted another child and in 1923 she adopted a baby boy, Sonny Smith (1922–1975), whom she renamed Joseph Patrick Swanson.
Her third husband was the French aristocrat Henri, Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye (1898–1972), whom she married on January 28, 1925 after the Somborn divorce was finalized. Though Henri was a Marquis and the grandson of Richard and Martha Lucy Hennessy from the famous Hennessy Cognac family, he was not rich and had to work for a living.He was originally hired to be her assistant and interpreter in France while she was filming Madame Sans-Gêne (1925). Gloria was the first film star to marry European royalty, and the marriage became a global sensation. She conceived a child with him, but had an abortion which, in her autobiography, she said she regretted.
Later Henri became a film executive representing Pathé (USA) in France through Joseph P. Kennedy, who was running the studio. Many now assume he was given the position which kept him in France for ten months a year to simply keep him out of the way. This marriage ended in divorce in 1930 Soon after, Henri was married for a second time, this time to actress Constance Bennett.
While still married to Henri, Swanson had an affair with the married Joseph P. Kennedy for a number of years. He became her business partner and their relationship was an open secret in Hollywood. He took over all of her personal and business affairs and was supposed to make her millions. Unfortunately, after the disastrous Queen Kelly Kennedy left her, and her finances were in worse shape than when he came into her life. Two books have been written about the affair.
After the marriage to Henri and her affair with Kennedy were over, she married Michael Farmer (1902–1975) in August 1931. Because of the possibility that Swanson's divorce from La Falaise had not been final at the time of the wedding, she was forced to remarry Farmer the following November, by which time she was four months pregnant with Michelle Bridget Farmer, who was born in 1932. Swanson and Farmer divorced in 1934. Their daughter, Michelle, stayed with her mother, was often on the set of Sunset Boulevard, and at age 18 moved to France where she still lives.
In 1945, she married William N. Davey. According to Swanson, after discovering Davey in a drunken stupor, she and daughter Michelle, believing they were being helpful, left a trail of Alcoholics Anonymous literature around their apartment. Davey quickly packed up and left.This divorce was finalized in 1946. For the next thirty years, Swanson would not be married, and was able to pursue her own interests.
Swanson joined the ranks of celebrities that have been stalked. In the early 1950s, she was pursued by a World War II veteran, Samuel Golden, who claimed that the two were destined to be married and would give her 2/3 of his children as well as divulge secrets about the Navy's computer systems if she would run away with him. Recent declassified FBI documents disclose J. Edgar Hoover's obsession with seeing Golden tried for treason, but Golden dropped out of sight, apparently in the Greater Boston area.
Swanson's final marriage was in 1976 and lasted until her death. Her sixth husband and widower, writer William Dufty (1916–2002), was the co-author of Billie Holiday's autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, the author of Sugar Blues, a 1975 best-selling health book still in print, and the author of the English version of Georges Ohsawa's You Are All Sanpaku. He was best known as a book ghost-writer and as a newspaperman, working for many years at the New York Post, where he was assistant to the editor from 1951-1960. Dufty first met Swanson in 1965 and by 1967 they were living together as a couple. Swanson shared her husband's deep enthusiasm for macrobiotic diets and they traveled widely together to speak about sugar and food. They promoted his book Sugar Blues together in 1975 and wrote a syndicated column together. It was through this book and Dufty that Swanson first got to know John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Swanson later testified on his behalf at his immigration hearing in New York to get a U.S. green card, which he eventually received. Being a well-respected author and "book doctor," Dufty also ghost-wrote Swanson's best-selling 1980 autobiography Swanson on Swanson for her and with her help. They were prominent socialites and had homes and lived in many places, including New York City, Rome, Portugal, and Palm Springs, California. After Swanson's death Dufty returned to his former home in Birmingham, Michigan. Dufty died of cancer in 2002.
Death
Shortly after returning to New York from her home in Portugal, on April 4, 1983, Swanson died in New York City in New York Hospital from a heart ailment, aged 84. She was cremated and her ashes interred at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest on Fifth Avenue, in New York City, attended by only a small circle of family. Her death created worldwide headlines, with The New York Times echoing a line from Sunset Boulevard, calling her, "The greatest star of them all."After Swanson's death, there were a series of auctions from August to September 1983 at William Doyle Gallery in New York of the star's furniture and decorations, jewelry, fashion collection, career and personal memorabilia.
Legacy
Gloria Swanson has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for motion pictures at 6748 Hollywood Boulevard, and another for television at 6301 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1982, a year before her death, Swanson sold her archives of over 600 boxes for an undisclosed sum, including photographs, artwork, copies of films and private papers including correspondence, contracts and financial dealings to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The second-largest collection of Swanson materials is held in the family archives of Timothy A. Rooks. In the last years of her life Swanson professed a desire to see Beyond the Rocks, but the film was unavailable and considered lost. The film was rediscovered and screened in 2005. Swanson was survived by both of her daughters, her son having died in 1975, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the United States and France. Arguably one of the greatest stars of early Hollywood, today Swanson is most remembered for her portrayal of Norma Desmond in 1950's Sunset Boulevard.Filmography
His New Job (1915) (Extant)
Teddy at the Throttle (1917) (Extant)
Society for Sale (1918) (Lost)
Her Decision (1918) (Lost)
Station Content (1918) (Lost)
You Can't Believe Everything (1918) (Lost)
Everywoman's Husband (1918) (Lost)
Shifting Sands (1918) (Extant)
The Secret Code (1918) (Lost)
Wife or Country (1918) (Lost)
Don't Change Your Husband (1919) (Extant)
For Better, for Worse (1919) (Extant)
Male and Female (1919) (Extant)
Why Change Your Wife? (1920) (Extant)
Something to Think About (1920) (Extant)
The Great Moment (1921) (Lost)
The Affairs of Anatol (1921) (Extant)
Under the Lash (1921) (Lost)
Don't Tell Everything (1921) (Lost)
Her Husband's Trademark (1922) (Extant)
Her Gilded Cage (1922) (Lost)
Beyond the Rocks (1922) (Extant)
The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (1922) (Lost)
My American Wife (1922) (Lost)
Prodigal Daughters (1923) (Lost)
Bluebeard's 8th Wife (1923) (Lost)
Hollywood (1923) (cameo) (Lost)
Zaza (1923) (Extant; Library of Congress)
The Humming Bird (1924) (Extant; Library of Congress)
A Society Scandal (1924) (Lost)
Manhandled (1924) (Extant; Library of Congress)
Her Love Story (1924) (Lost)
Wages of Virtue (1924) (Lost)
Madame Sans-Gêne (1925) (Lost)
The Coast of Folly (1925) (Lost)
Stage Struck (1925) (Extant)
The Untamed Lady (1926) (Lost)
Fine Manners (1926) (Extant; Library of Congress)
The Love of Sunya (1927) (Extant)
Sadie Thompson (1928) (Extant)
Queen Kelly (1929) (Extant)
The Trespasser (1929) (Extant)
What a Widow! (1930)
Indiscreet (1931) (Extant)
Tonight or Never (1931) (Extant)
Perfect Understanding (1933) (Extant)
Music in the Air (1934) (Extant)
Father Takes a Wife (1941) (Extant)
Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Extant)
Three for Bedroom "C" (1952)
Nero's Mistress (1956)
Chaplinesque, My Life and Hard Times (1972) (documentary narrator)
Airport 1975 (1974)
Short subjects
The Song of the Soul (1914)
At the End of a Perfect Day (1915)
The Ambition of the Baron (1915)
The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915)
His New Job (1915)
Sweedie Goes to College (1915)
The Romance of an American Duchess (1915)
The Broken Pledge (1915)
The Nick of Time Baby (1916)
A Dash of Courage (1916)
Hearts and Sparks (1916)
A Social Cub (1916)
The Danger Girl (1916)
Haystacks and Steeples (1916)
Teddy at the Throttle (1917)
Baseball Madness (1917)
Dangers of a Bride (1917)
Whose Baby? (1917)
The Sultan's Wife (1917)
The Pullman Bride (1917)
A Trip to Paramountown (1922)
Gloria Swanson Dialogue (1925)
Television
The Peter Lind Hayes Show (1 episode, 1950)
What's My Line? (2 episodes, 1950, 1965)
Hollywood Opening Night (1 episode, 1953)
Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson (Host, 1954–1955)
The Steve Allen Show (1 episode, 1957)
Straightaway (1 episode, 1961)
Dr. Kildare (1 episode, 1963)
Kraft Suspense Theatre (1 episode, 1964)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1 episode, 1964)
Burke's Law (2 episodes, 1963–1964)
My Three Sons (1 episode, 1965)
Ben Casey (1 episode, 1965)
The Carol Burnett Show (1973)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1 episode, 1966)
Killer Bees (1974)
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