Born 1911 in Brooklyn, New York, American actress Sigrid Gurie arrived in Hollywood in 1936. Film magnate Sam Goldwyn reportedly took credit for discovering her, promoting his discovery as “the Norwegian Garbo” and billed her as “the siren of the fjords”. She starred as Kokashin, daughter of Kublai Khan, in the 1938 production of The Adventures of Marco Polo, When the press discovered Gurie’s birth in Flatbush, Goldwyn then claimed “the greatest hoax in movie history.” She was then scapegoated for the film’s failure.
Gurie went on to give worthwhile performances in such films as Algiers (1938), Three Faces West (1940) and Voice in the Wind (1944). She had a minor role in the classic Norwegian film Kampen om tungtvannet (1948). The movie was based principally on the book Skis Against the Atom which was written by her brother, Knut Haukelid, a noted saboteur and member of the Norwegian resistance against German occupation in World War II.
From 1961 to 1969 she lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she continued painting, and was also designing jewelry for Royal Copenhagen in Denmark. She died in 1969 at the age of 58. Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of young Sigrid Gurie in the 1930s and 1940s.
