Gloria Swanson

While she is best known for her role as fading movie legend Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson was a movie star who lived her life on her own terms. The diminutive actress (5’1) lived extravagantly and received unbelievable adulation including ten thousand fan letters a week at the height of her fame.

Jeffrey Schwarz, like most cinephiles, has a special love for the film Sunset Boulevard. While the award-winning documentarian thought he knew everything about Billy Wilder’s 1950 Hollywood masterpiece, which introduced the world to Norma Desmond, an aging actress brilliantly played by Golden Globe-winning Best Actress Gloria Swanson, he was surprised to discover a unique afterlife to the cinematic classic.

For over 40 years the HFPA has recorded famous and celebrated actresses, actors and filmmakers. The world's largest collection of its kind - over 10,000  items - is now in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Margaret Herrick Library.