Anna Q Nilsson (Actor)

Anna Quirentia Nilsson, who was born on March 30th, 1888 in Ystad, Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1910 after a minor start as a stage actress in her native Sweden. The 5' 7" Nilsson used her blonde beauty to become a famous model for well-known fashion photographers and fine artists. Her break into motion pictures came from her modeling career: It was the age of the magazine and poster illustration, and her illustration as the "Penrhyn Stanlaws Girl" led to a starring role as the eponymous "Molly Pitcher" in a 1911 Kalem two-reeler, her very first film. She was one of those "overnight sensations," becoming a silent film superstar in the first decade of the 20th Century. Nilsson appeared in movies cranked out by the top studios, including Goldwyn, Famous Players (Paramount), Metro and First National. Her movie career continued to flourish in the 1920s, the decade of the flapper and bathtub gin, the so-called "Jazz Age." However, Nilsson suffered a setback in 1925, when she was seriously injured and invalided when thrown by a horse. She fell onto a stone wall and was paralyzed, and it took a year of treatment and therapy in Europe before she could walk again. Nilsson appeared in a number of films during her attempted comeback to the screen (including "The Babe Comes Home" with baseball immortal Babe Ruth), but her star went into a violent eclipse with the coming of sound. With the advent of the talkies, she initially retired from the movies, giving herself over to charity work, before returning to movies as a bit player. She was one of the bridge players (the "wax works") in Norma Desmond's mansion in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), appearing with her her former co-star (and silent film superstar AND prominent victim of sound) "H. B. Warner'. Four years later, she appeared in her swan-song in motion pictures, a small part in the classic musical "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954). Anna Q. Nillson died on February 11, 1974, six weeks shy of her 85th birthday.