It’s not often we write about someone who didn’t actually want to be an actor as a child. But it seems true of Greer Garson. She was born to a respectable family, apparently in Essex, and lived a normal, respectable life. And then she went to work as the head of the research library for the marketing branch of Lever Brothers. Her coworker, George Sanders, encouraged her to start acting. So she did. She doesn’t seem to have acted a lot; her career stretched from 1937—the early days of television, even—to 1982, and she has fewer than fifty TV and movie credits in that time. Not even one a year. And her last movie was nearly thirty years before she died.

Her first movie was in 1939, that great golden year of cinema. She’d done theatre and even television before then, and she’s been under contract to Louis B. Mayer for two years, but her first film was Goodbye, Mr. Chips, considered one of the great films of the year. She lost the Oscar to Vivien Leigh, another British transplant, but her career was definitely off and running.

1942 was probably Garson’s best year; that year, she appeared in her iconic role in Mrs. Miniver, which she’d be associated with the rest of her life. She won the Oscar, and she is in fact the reason the orchestra starts playing people off. Yeah, it may be disappointing when someone gets cut off, but Garson spoke for a full five and a half minutes. That year, she also appeared in Random Harvest, which won a whole bunch of Oscars and probably would’ve gotten a nomination for Garson were it not for Miniver.

And, yes, the role I think of her in is her final film appearance and her only role for Disney. I cannot in good conscience recommend The Happiest Millionaire; it’s an uneven mess. But it played on The Disney Channel a lot when I was a kid, and it is what it is. Garson’s fine in it in a not very inspiring role. She’s mostly there to be a much-needed note of dignity, and she’s good at that. It’s probably why they cast Garson in the first place; no one did her particular variety of dignity. Alas, it comes from the era where they were trying to make a romantic lead out of someone better suited for a gameshow host, and the script is all over the place, but none of the movie failings are Garson’s fault.

And in case you’re curious, her birth name was Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson. “Greer” was her mother’s maiden name and is short for “MacGregor.” She’s descended from a land steward who oversaw land in Ireland, which is probably why certain resources claim she was born there. But, my college best friend’s favourite song notwithstanding, she was not a sweet colleen from the County Down. She was an upper-middle class lady from Essex with a degree in French and eighteenth century literature, which is not exactly the same thing.

I’m not planning to retire any time soon; support my continuing efforts by contributing to my Patreon or Ko-fi!