Nils Asther

Nils Anton Alfhild Asther (17 January 1897 – 19 October 1981) was a Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid-1950s, known as "the male Greta Garbo". Between 1916 and 1963, he appeared in over seventy feature films, sixteen of which were produced in the silent era. He is mainly remembered today for two silent films, The Single Standard and Wild Orchids, which he made with fellow Swede Greta Garbo, and his portrayal of the title character in the controversial pre-Code Frank Capra film, The Bitter Tea of General Yen.

Biography Born Nils Anton Alfhild Asther, he was the son of Swedish nationals Anton Andersson Asther (born February 21, 1865, Caroli, Malmö) and Hildegard Augusta Åkerlund (born November 3, 1869, in Södra Sallerup, Malmöhus County). Although Asther had promised Åkerlund marriage, she was unwed on giving birth to Nils in the Sankt Matthæus Parish of the Copenhagen borough of Vesterbro where she very briefly stayed. Thus, due to the marriage already being promised, Nils was technically not illegitimate; when his parents married on May 29, 1898, it was noted Anton officially acknowledged the boy as his.

He spent his first year as a foster child in Hyllie, Sweden with saddlemaker Rasmus Hellström and wife Emilia Kristina Möller. He was christened there on February 26, 1897, before being returned to his biological parents who then wed in Malmö.

His older half-brother, Gunnar Anton Asther (born March 4, 1892, in Caroli, Malmö) was his father's child from a previous marriage to Anna Paulina Olander, who died in July 1895.

As a young man, Asther moved to Stockholm, where he received acting lessons from Augusta Lindberg. It was through Lindberg that Asther received his first theatrical engagement at Lorensbergsteatern in Gothenburg, and in 1916 Mauritz Stiller cast him in The Wings (Swedish: Vingarna), a 1916 gay-themed Swedish silent film directed by Mauritz Stiller, based on Herman Bang's 1902 novel Mikaël. In Copenhagen, actor Aage Hertel of the Royal Danish Theatre took Asther under his wing. This soon led to a number of film roles in Sweden, Denmark and Germany between 1918 and 1926.

Hollywood In 1927, Asther left for Hollywood, where his first film was Topsy and Eva. By 1928 his good looks had made him into a leading man, playing opposite such stars as Pola Negri, Marion Davies and Joan Crawford. He grew a thin mustache which amplified his suave appearance. One of his most popular films was Our Dancing Daughters, starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Anita Page, and Dorothy Sebastian. Asther was cast opposite Greta Garbo in Wild Orchids as the tempting Javanese Prince De Gace. With the arrival of sound in movies, Asther took diction and voice lessons to minimize his accent, and was generally cast in roles where an accent was not a problem, such as the Chinese General Yen in The Bitter Tea of General Yen. Asther made six films there. He returned to Hollywood in 1940, and although he made another 19 films up until 1949, his career was never the same, and he appeared mostly in small supporting roles. In the early 1950s, Asther tried to restart his career in television, but managed only to secure roles in a few episodes of minor TV series. he returned to Sweden, almost destitute. There, he managed to get an engagement with a local theater and had four film roles before finally giving up on acting in 1963 and devoting his time to painting.

The theatrical community and the film industry of the 1920s accepted gay actors with little reservation, always provided they remain discreet about their sexual orientation and there was no public suggestion of impropriety. Asther was closeted, and proposed marriage to Greta Garbo to hide his true sexual orientation. Asther and Garbo had known each other in Sweden, and finding themselves relatively new to a foreign land, they spent a great deal of time together. They often visited a friend's ranch outside Hollywood where they could relax, ride horses, go climbing, or swim at Lake Arrowhead. "Sailor" was a favored term for Garbo's male, gay, and bisexual friends. In 1929, during filming with Asther on location at Santa Catalina Island for The Single Standard, she was overheard berating him for grabbing her so roughly: "I'm not one of your sailors."

Rumors swirled in the early 1930s that Asther had relationships with fellow Swedes, director Mauritz Stiller and the writer Hjalmar Bergman, among other male colleagues. Asther mentions some of this in his memoirs. He had a long-term relationship with actor/stuntman and World War II Navy sailor Ken DuMain. According to DuMain, he met Asther on Hollywood Boulevard in the early 1940s, and they enjoyed a long-term relationship. They had one child, Evelyn Asther Duncan, dubbed by the media as "The International Baby" due to her Swedish father, American mother, and Bavarian birth. This made Evelyn’s nationality debatable, so Asther offered to apply for American citizenship if it would help the process of getting her into the United States. Asther and Duncan's marriage proved stormy from the start, and became tabloid fodder; they divorced in 1932.

Memoirs Asther's posthumously published memoir in Swedish had a foreword by theatre historian Uno "Myggan" Ericson, who had met Asther only once in 1958 on arriving in Gothenburg. The afterword was by Iwo Wiklander. The middle of the book, written by Asther himself, covers the years between his birth and return to Sweden in 1958. Wiklander claimed in later interviews that Asther was intent on erasing parts of his life before his death, and that much material in the autobiography was exaggerated or completely fictitious to make a more interesting story. Countess Linde Klinckowström-von Rosen claimed their "engagement" was a practical joke while filming together. She did, however, introduce Asther to her family, and to the Swedish painter Nils Dardel and his freethinking artistic circle.

Selected filmography

The Wings (1916) – Aspiring actor Hittebarnet (1917, Short) – Kurt Retten sejrer (1918) A Trip to Mars (1918) – Wounded Martian Citizen (uncredited) Solen der dræbte (1918) – Jan Gyurkovicsarna (1920) – Bandi Gyurkovics Vem dömer (1922) – Apprentice The Secret of the Duchess (1923) Norrtullsligan (1923) – Baby's Fiancé Charles XII's Courier (1924) – Stanislaus Wienerbarnet (1924) – Charles Dupont Letters Which Never Reached Him (1925) Love's Finale (1925) – Dr. Gaston Lasar Her Husband's Wife (1926) Three Cuckoo Clocks (1926) – Reginald Ellis The Golden Butterfly (1926) – Andy, sein Sohn Das süße Mädel (1926) – The Prince's Son Wrath of the Seas (1926) – Torpedooffizier Günther Adenried The Man with the Counterfeit Money (1927) Gauner im Frack (1927) – George Valeska Hotelratten (1927) – Fürst Ladrone Topsy and Eva (1927) – George Shelby Sorrell and Son (1927) – Christopher 'Kit' Sorrell The Blue Danube (1928) – Erich von Statzen Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) – Luigi The Cossacks (1928) – Prince Olenin Stieshneff Loves of an Actress (1928) – Raoul The Cardboard Lover (1928) – Andre Our Dancing Daughters (1928) – Norman Dream of Love (1928) – Prince Maurice de Saxe Wild Orchids (1929) – Prince De Gace The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) – Nils Asther (scenes deleted) The Single Standard (1929) – Packy Cannon The Sea Bat (1930) – Carl But the Flesh Is Weak (1932) – Prince Paul Letty Lynton (1932) – Emile Renaul The Washington Masquerade (1932) – Brenner The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932) – Gen. Yen Storm at Daybreak (1933) – Captain Geza Petery The Right to Romance (1933) – Dr. Helmuth Heppling If I Were Free (1933) – Tono Cazenove By Candlelight (1933) – Prince Alfred von Rommer Madame Spy (1934) – Captain Franck The Crime Doctor (1934) – Gary Patten The Love Captive (1934) – Dr. Alexis Collender Love Time (1934) – Franz Schubert Abdul the Damned (1935) – Chief of Police Kadar-Pasha The Prisoner of Corbal (1936) – Varennes Guilty Melody (1936) – Galloni Make-Up (1937) – Bux Tea Leaves in the Wind (1938) – Tony Drake The Man Who Lost Himself (1941) – Peter Ransome Forced Landing (1941) – Colonel Jan Golas Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941) – Constanzo Labardi Flying Blind (1941) – Eric Karolek The Night of January 16th (1941) – Bjorn Faulkner The Night Before the Divorce (1942) – Victor Roselle Sweater Girl (1942) – Prof. Henri Menard Night Monster (1942) – Agor Singh Submarine Alert (1943) – Dr. Arthur Huneker Mystery Broadcast (1943) – Ricky Moreno The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) – Kurt van der Breughel Bluebeard (1944) – Inspector Jacques Lefevre Alaska (1944) – Thomas Leroux The Man in Half Moon Street (1945) – Dr. Julian Karell Son of Lassie (1945) – Olav Jealousy (1945) – Peter Urban Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945) – Tony Linnard The Feathered Serpent (1948) – Prof. Paul Evans Samson and Delilah (1949) – Prince (uncredited) That Man from Tangier (1953) – Henri When Darkness Falls (1960) – Tord Ekstedt, Vicar Svenska Floyd (1961) – Vincent Mitella The Lady in White (1962) – Simon Ek Suddenly, a Woman! (1963) – Londonchefen (final film role)

On soundtracks Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941) as uncredited performer: "Ride of the Valkyries" and "Tableau Russe"" (Symphonic Suite Composed by Lionel Barrymore) Storm at Daybreak (1933) as performer: "Roses from the South"

Selected stage The Importance of Being Earnest; director: Gustaf Linden, premiere: 1923-02-27, Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm The Admirable Crichton; director: Karl Hedberg, premiere: 1923-10-12 Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm Othello; director: Olof Molander, premiere: 1924-02-08 Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm The Strong Are Lonely; director: Margaret Webster, premiere: 1924-09-29 Broadhurst Theatre, New York