Nils Asther
Nils Asther Alfhild Anton ( born January 17, 1897 in Copenhagen, Denmark, † October 13, 1981 in Stockholm, Sweden ) was a Swedish actor born in Denmark, did better with some success in Hollywood during the late silent era.
Career
Nils Asther first learned at the renowned Academy of Theatre of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, where he was engaged in 1916 by Mauritz Stiller, the later discovery of Greta Garbo for the film. After Asther had appeared in many Swedish and German productions, he went to Hollywood in 1927, where he quickly became popular. He has played in Herbert Brenons Laugh, Clown, Laugh alongside Lon Chaney and Loretta Young, in Her Cardboard Lover with Marion Davies, in Loves of an Actress at the side of Pola Negri and had two appearances alongside Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters and Dream of Love. In Wild Orchids and invisible shackles was Nils Asther Leading Man of Greta Garbo. Asther had unlike Garbo significant problems with his accent and was practically unemployed with the advent of sound film overnight. He married in 1929 at the time Vivian Duncan, part of the sibling duo The Duncan Sisters and toured with her through America. Marriage, from which emerged a daughter, divorced in 1932.
1932 returned Nils Asther with a studio contract with MGM to Hollywood back. For the studio, he played among others in Letty Lynton again on the side of Joan Crawford and Kay Francis and Walter Huston in Storm at Daybreak, a love story during the first Balkan War. Columbia Pictures put him in 1933 in The Bitter Tea of General Yen, directed by Frank Capra on the side of a Barbara Stanwyck. In the same year Asther also worked for RKO Pictures, where in The Right to Romance and Irene Dunne he worked alongside Ann Harding in If I Were Free.
Shortly thereafter, Aster fought with the studio heads of MGM and was put on a blacklist. He could not find work in the American movie business more and went in 1934 to England. After his return to the U.S. in 1938 only appeared in supporting roles. Trying to start a second career in television, failed soon. At the end of Nils Asther finally went back to Europe, where he made his last film in 1963. At this time he was almost exclusively active in the theater and painted. His autobiography was published posthumously. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in height 6705 Hollywood Boulevard reminded of him.