Greta Gynt (1916 - 2000)

Every era has actors who are more famous for their glamour and the headlines they provoke than for the roles they play. For the war years and the immediate post-war period, that position was filled by Greta Gynt.

She was originally Norwegian, born Margarethe Woxholt, and first came to England at the age of three when her father moved for work. She was educated in a Norwegian convent school. Her mother was a costume designer from whom Gynt got her love of theatre. Her first film was in Norway but she moved to Britain permanently in 1936 and got stage work. The first of her four husbands was her agent, though the most significant influence on her career was the producer Filippo Del Giudice whose mistress she became.

Her first significant role was in The Arsenal Stadium Mystery as one of the chief suspects, though it was the Arsenal team that was the main selling point. From then on she added glamour to the drab war years, mostly as foils to light comics, getting a grittier role in Mr Emmanuel. Her best period was post-war where she became a woman worth dying, and killing, for in melodramas. The inevitable brief visit to Hollywood put an end to this bright period and her career petered out in unmemorable films. Her last marriage, to a plastic surgeon lasted 25 years until his death.     

Filmography 

 Greta Gynt at Amazon UK

 Greta Gynt at Amazon US