Screen Godesses

Audrey Hepburn

They were loved by the camera, made up and lit to look like Godesses. Created by the old Hollywood system, shackled to contracts, preened and plucked, with their names changed to something more American and easily pronounced. They gained world fame, accolades and bags of money. Their look with their hair styles, their make-up and their way of dress influenced millions of women and still play a part in the fashions we see today.

Ava Gardner

Lana Turner

Grace Kelly

Greta Garbo

Ingrid Bergman

Beautiful girls with symmetrical faces flocked to Hollywood with the dream of being seen by millions on the silver screen. Naturally it was impossible for them all to succeed. Some had to go back to where they came from and others got stuck in bit parts in b-movies.

Signe Hasso

Not all actresses that got shipped from Sweden to the land of dreams reached the heights of Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman even if that had been the Studios' initial plan. Signe Hasso and Viveca Lindfors are two actresses that are just as beautiful as the ones who were and are hailed as Godesses. They starred in movies against Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn and Cary Grant but in movies that haven't become the great classics. Because of their accents they were somewhat limited and they didn't want to play the Hollywood game, the game that had to be played to enhance the opportunities of becoming Godesses.

Viveca Lindfors

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Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo is an icon and became a legend in her own lifetime. Born in 1905 in Sweden and she grew up in a very poor family. She was interested in theatre and her teacher, Mauritz Stiller, cast her in Gösta Berlings Saga. The film was seen by Louis B Mayer from MGM in Berlin and that was Garbo's ticket to Hollywood.

Greta Garbo made a success in the silent movies. She was afraid that her Swedish accent would be seen as off putting so she waited as long as possible to do a "talkie". With the slogan "Garbo talks!" the audience first heard her voice in 1930 in the film Anna Christie. The first line uttered goes something like this: "I would like a whisky. Ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby". Her accent was liked and Garbo's success grew larger. She became the queen of MGM, and the highest paid actress in Hollywood.

In 1939 Greta Garbo made her first comedy, Ninotchka, in order to change her melancholic image. The film was loved by critics and public alike. With the Second World War and the European market basically out the window MGM wanted to gear Garbo over to appeal stronger to the American market. Another comedy, Two-Faced Woman, was made. It was a box office success but slayed by the critics and it became Garbo's swan song since she never made another movie again.

After Two-Faced Woman she had plenty of offers and she considered some of them but for various reasons they never became reality. Garbo moved to a huge apartment in New York where she lived a reclusive life, hunted by the paparazzi. Through all her life she had an air of mystic and generated a fascination like no other actress, ever. Her masculine style of dressing has made her into one of the world's strongest style icons which influence still prevails.


In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Greta Garbo on fifth place on their list of greatest female stars of all time. She was preceded by Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman. TWO Swedish women in the top five of that list!! That is highly impressive for a small country in the cold north.


I think Kenneth Tynan sums up Greta Garbo's unique appeal on us very accurately:
"What one sees in other women drunk, one sees in Garbo sober."



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Ingrid Bergman

I have always been fascinated by the fact that Sweden, this small country up in the north, has contributed to two of Hollywood's biggest stars ever, Greta Garbo and Ingrid bergman. A nice fact that can make you proud being Swedish.

Ingrid Bergman was born in 1915 and at 17 she started at the Royal Dramatic Theatre School. She was sought after by the Swedish film industry and quit the school after only one year. Ingrid Bergman starred in the Swedish film Intermezzo in 1936 which created international interest and led her to go to Hollywood to make an American version of the film.

With little experience in the English language she signed a seven year contract with producer David O. Selznick. He wanted to change her looks and her name. She refused.

In 1942 Ingrid Bergman starred against Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, which is considered as one of the best films in history and made her into a legend in her own lifetime. She worked with great directors like Alfred Hitchcock and George Cukor and starred against leading men like Cary grant, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy and Gary Copper.

In 1950 she went to Italy to make a film with Roberto Rosselini. They fell in love and Ingrid left her first husband creating a huge scandal in America. After separating from Rosselini in 1956 she was let back to Hollywood, forgiven by her fans and received her second academy award for her performance in Anastasia. She then picked up where she left off and continued her triumphant journey in Hollywood. Ingrid Bergman died in 1982 on 67th birthday in her home in London.


She won three Academy Awards, two Emmys and one Tony. She has been rated as the fourth most important film actress of all time by the American Film Institute. She was eceptionally beautiful and has and still has an important influence on style and fashion.

My favourite of her films is Notorious.

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A Style Icon

Cary Grant, he had style. He was one of the men of Hollywood's golden age that grazed the screen in the best of ways. Dressed impeccably both on and off screen. He had a certain sense of charm and who could not like a man, who had a Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman as one of his favourite leading ladies?

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