Signe Hasso
Born August 15, 1915, in Stockholm, Sweden
Died June 7, 2002, in Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)
Birth Name Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson
Young Signe Larsson was only 12 when she started to work as a child extra at The Royal Dramatic Theater and was the youngest ever enrolled for acting studies there at 16. She quickly got leading roles in movies and always received very good reviews. In 1940 she went to Hollywood and signed a contract with RKO. Despite her talent, it didn't lead to any work and she ventured off to New York and the theater. She signed a contract with MGM and made a dozen of movies, including George Cukor's A Double Life (1947), possibly her best. However, she longed to go back to the theater and has worked in London and New York as well as touring around the US.
Signe Hasso was born Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson in Stockholm, Sweden in 1915 and lived with her mother, grandmother, and two siblings in a one-room apartment; her father, Johannes Petrus Larsson, and her grandfather had both died when she was a small child. Her mother, Helfrid Elisabet Johanna (nee Lindström) Larson, once an aspiring actress, cooked and sold waffles to support the family.
She began working on stage as a teenager at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre, becoming one of the youngest students to study drama there. The free schooling led her into acting. In 1933, she made her screen debut and over the following seven years switched between stage and film before going to Hollywood, where she was signed by RKO Studios, touted as the "next Garbo" after Greta Garbo retired in 1941. Hasso arrived in Hollywood after starring in numerous European films.
Although beautiful and Swedish, the unrealistic "next Garbo" hope never materialized. But she did appear successfully in many 1940s films such as The Seventh Cross (1944), The House on 92nd Street (1945), Johnny Angel (1945), and A Double Life (1947) co-starring with Hollywood stars including Spencer Tracy, Lloyd Nolan, George Raft, Ronald Colman and others. Her Hollywood career lasted about a decade and put her opposite such leading men as Gary Cooper and Cary Grant. But, she never really caught on with audiences in the United States, at least not as another Garbo. After an uncredited debut in Journey for Margaret (1942), which starred child actress Margaret O'Brien, Hasso made a humorous splash in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943) as a lusty French maid who provides the young hero (played as an adult by Don Ameche) with an early bedside education.
It was a rare foray into comedy in a career noted for dramatic roles, often with a wartime or espionage setting. Such films included Assignment in Brittany (1943) and The House on 92nd Street (1945), notable for director Henry Hathaway's documentary-like staging. In Fred Zinnemann's The Seventh Cross (1944), she and Spencer Tracy played concentration camp escapees on the run from Nazis in World War II.
She said that her favorite screen part was Ronald Colman's ex-wife in A Double Life (1947), a story about an actor (Colman) who identifies too closely with his roles. Like Othello, he adopts the same rages as Shakespeare's jealous "Moor" and endangers Ms. Hasso's character, an actress who plays "Desdemona". Her reaction to finding real blood on the bed during the climactic death scene of the play within the movie was memorable. She also appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) with Gary Cooper and Crisis (1950) with Cary Grant.
She largely stopped acting in Hollywood films after her son's death in a car accident in 1954. She concentrated on a stage career on Broadway, and she helped start a national repertory theater in Sweden. She made many television appearances, most recently in a documentary about Greta Garbo. In a 1995 interview, she said she wanted to be known for her prose and poetry. She was a lyricist whose English translation of Swedish folk songs won her acclaim. Her books, such as "Kom Slott" or "Momo", can be found listed on major sites albeit as second-hand orders.
In 1989, the Vasa Order of America named her Swedish-American of the Year, an honor for those of Swedish birth or descent. She died from pneumonia resulting from the debilitation of lung cancer. Among those who were with her at the end was Swedish actor Peter Stormare, who met Hasso for the first time when he toured in America with the Royal Swedish Dramatic Theatre, Dramaten, and became a friend when he moved to Los Angeles. He, among other friends and relatives, spent time with Hasso during her last days. He sat with her and held her hand when she passed away.
Spouse (2)
Harry Hasso (1933 - 1941) ( divorced) ( 1 child)
William Langford (? - 20 July 1955) ( his death)
Trade Mark (1)
Striking green eyes and a mass of reddish-brown hair
Last seen publicly at the "Night of 200 Stars" tribute to Gene Autry and Whitney Houston in New York City in 1995.
Amanda S. Stevenson 
