Marguerite Viby

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Marguerite Viby

Promotional Photo of Marguerite Viby


Born Ida Marguerite Stenberg Jensen
June 25, 1909(1909-06-25)
Flag of Denmark Denmark
Died April 8, 2001 (aged 91)
Years active 1929- 1973


Marguerite Viby ([1909]]–2001) was a Danish actress of stage, film and television. Considered one of the great comedy actresses of Danish cinema, Viby received honorary Bodil and Robert Awards in 2000 for lifetime achievement. She appeared in more than 50 films and television shows during a career that spanned from the silent film era in 1929 until a television series in 1983.

Contents

[edit] Career

Marguerite Viby was born Ida Marguerite Stenberg Jensen in Denmark on June 25, 1909. Viby was schooled as a dancer at Emilie Walboms Ballet School aa well as through private instruction from the Danish Royal Dancer John Andersen. In 1923, when she was 14-years-old, Viby debuted in a summer revue at Tivoli Gardens. She continued to perform in revues and stage musicals throughout her life.

In 1929, Viby began her film career in the silent film Højt på en kvist (High on in the Attic). She followed with four films in which her casting was mostly based on her physical attraction, however in He, She and Hamlet, the first Danish combined sound film, she danced and sang a romantic duet with leading man Hans W. Petersen.

According to biographer Morten Piils, it was Viby's next role which established her typical role -- the energetic, witty woman who acts as she must to maneuver in a man's world . In the 1932 George Schneevoigt film Tretten År (13 Years), Viby is an office girl who plays a thirteen-year-old Lolita to avoid men's advances. Piils wrote that it was only Viby's "fundamental cheerful innocence which saved this erotic farce..."

Viby made her next nine films under the direction of her second husband, Emanuel Gregers. This included four films after they divorced in 1938, and she married the actor Knud Wold. Her greatest success during this period was Mille, Marie og Mig (Mille, Marie and Me) in which Viby played a woman with three personalities -- the prim, bespectacled student Klaus; the erotic nightclub singer Mille; and the homebody Marie. As Mille, in Marlene Dietrich-style men's clothing, Viby sings the popular Danish hit Jeg har elsket dig så lang jeg kan mindes (I have Loved You as Long as I Can Remember).

In the early 1940's, Viby made two popular comedies with the directing duo of Alice O'Fredericks and Lau Lauritzen Jr. -- Frøken Kirkemus (Mrs. Churchmouse) and Frøken Vildkat (Mrs. Wildcat). The style of direction -- quick light-hearted banter similar to American screw-ball comedies -- was better suited to Viby than the heavier exposition of Gregers direction. She quickly became one of the most popular actresses and performed in a string of romantic comedies including Som du vil ha' mig (1943), Jeg elsker en anden (1946), and Den Store Gavtyv (1956).

In the 1970's and 80's, Viby continued her acting in television, including the continuing role of Olga Mortensen in the comedy series En Stor Familie (One Big Family). In 2000, Viby was presented with lifetime achievement awards at both the Bodil and Robert awards ceremonies. Viby died the following year on April 8, 2001 at the age of 90.


[edit] Personal Life

While her professional acting life was steady, her personal life was more volatile. Viby married five times. Her first marriage was to actor and dancer Poul Christian Guldager (1926-1931), then to Danish film director Emanuel Gregers (1932-1938). In 1938, Viby married businessman Knud Wold with whom she had her only child, the actress Susse Wold. During the early 1940's, Viby was linked with Prince Bertil of Sweden. In 1953, she married actor Preben Mahrt, and after they divorced, she was married to schoolteacher Erik Henry Tangfelt from 1967 until his death in 1971.


[edit] Filmography

  • Højt paa en kvist - (1929)
  • Pas paa pigerne (1930)
  • Hr. Tell og søn (1930)
  • Ve' den, der lyver (1930) ... aka Woe to Him who Lies
  • Krudt med knald (1931)
  • Skal vi væde en million - (1932)
  • Han, hun og Hamlet - (1932) ... aka He, She and Hamlet
  • Skal vi vædde en million? - 1932 ... aka Do You want to bet a Million?
  • Tretten år - 1932
  • Fem raske piger - 1933
  • Så til søs - 1933
  • Skaf en sensation - 1934
  • Min kone er husar - 1935
  • Cocktail - 1937
  • Mille, Marie og mig - 1937
  • Komtessen på Stenholt - 1939
  • En pige med pep - 1940
  • Sørensen og Rasmussen - 1940
  • Frøken Kirkemus - 1941
  • Lykken kommer - 1942
  • Frøken Vildkat - 1942
  • Op med humøret - 1943
  • Som du vil ha' mig - 1943
  • Teatertosset - 1944
  • Lilla helgonet - 1944
  • Jeg elsker en anden - 1946
  • Den opvakte jomfru - 1950
  • Den store gavtyv - 1956
  • Hvad vil De ha'? - 1956
  • Pigen og vandpytten - 1958
  • Mine tossede drenge - 1961
  • Don Olsen kommer til byen - 1964
  • Far laver sovsen - 1967
  • Mordskab - (1969) ... aka The Busybody
  • På'en igen Amalie - 1973

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  • Mørk, Ebbe, Marguerite Viby - det var sjovt at være til (2001)
  • Pils, Morten, Marguerite Viby, Danske filmskuespillere, Gyldendal (2003):
  • Spies, Margrethe Linder, Marguerite Viby: skuespillerindens karrière i tekst og billeder (1940)
  • Marguerite Viby Død, Obituary, BT Newspaper, (April 8, 2001), retrieved 2008-06-13


[edit] External links

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