To briefly fast forward the story, just for a few paragraphs… One of the biggest myths about Hjördis is that she was a failed actress, which lead to decades of alcohol-fuelled jealousy aimed at David Niven, a husband who had done nothing but protect her from her lack of ability.
“She was fantastically beautiful but utterly devoid of talent, so never became the actress she wanted to be.” That was how journalist Ann Leslie understood the situation, after years of interviews with David.
It’s probably more accurate to say that no-one knew how much latent talent Hjördis possessed, and that she was never allowed to find out, despite being teased with movie offers throughout the 1940s and 50s.
The myth was set in stone by David’s biographer Graham Lord, who theorised that after their marriage David forbade Hjördis from accepting movie offers out of the goodness of his heart:
“Maybe he already knew that she was a terrible actress and was trying to save her from embarrassment and failure.” Wrong. When he laid down the law, David had never seen Hjördis act.
In Graham Lord’s defence, he was probably unaware that before their wedding in 1948, David had already insisted that she should never have any sort of career, ever. Or, in addition, that she had already fallen into exactly the same trap three years earlier.
A dedicated wife
Film work first opened up for Hjördis in 1943, very slightly, when she made two uncredited appearances in Swedish movies. In February she enhanced two brief night-club scenes in ‘Fångad av en röst’ (‘Captured by a Voice’), and in June / July appeared as a woman playing roulette in ‘Sjätte skottet’ (‘The Sixth Shot’). Although set in Monte Carlo, the scene had by necessity to be filmed in Stockholm.
Hjördis’ blink -and-you’ll-miss-them background scenes in ‘Fångad av en röst’, both set in the Carlton Hotel, Stockholm. She’s chatting bottom left in the first clip, and dances past the principal actors in the second clip. Maybe she was more visible on the cinema screen than this 4×3 television cut.
Hjördis’ brief scene in ‘Sjätte Skottet’. In later years she would become familiar with the interior of the real casino at Monte Carlo. The young woman that the camera pans across just before Hjördis looks very much like her friend and fellow NK model Kim Andersson .
As you can see, Hjördis was a decorative extra rather than a budding actress. The 1943 movies probably came through an arrangement with Leja to provide beautiful extras.
Larger roles did not follow. It was around this time that Hjördis moved from Leja to NK Franska, with her modelling career hitting new heights. By the start of 1945 she was at the top of her profession, engaged to one of Sweden’s most wealthy men, and half of a celebrity couple gushed over in the press.
“Miss Hjördis Genberg, one of Stockholm’s most famous fashion models,” one newspaper enthused in January 1945, “has become engaged to Lieutenant Carl Gustaf Tersmeden. Lieutenant Tersmeden is a well-known sailor and owner of the large yacht Symfoni.”
‘Symfoni’ by the way, had been built for the Crown Prince of Sweden in 1937, illustrating the depth of Carl’s pockets.
“With me, when things are going well, they go very well,” Hjördis later wrote, “and when they’re bad, it’s one disaster after another. Now I found myself in a peak period of my life, but I was still completely stunned when Mrs Pauline Brunius, then head of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, called me and asked for a meeting.”
“When I went to her, she asked if I had ever thought of becoming an actress. She and some of the other members of the board had noticed me, and found my type and appearance unusually suitable for the profession.”
“In a few months the entrance examinations for the student school would be taking place and they thought they would give me a chance. Of course, I was overwhelmed by this, and said that I would like nothing better, however I lacked the financial means to afford such training – if I were to pass the entrance examination.” (Odd thing for the fiancee of one of Sweden’s richest men to say, so you’d think…)
“Then she told me that they had already discussed the matter and that, first of all, one of the members of the board was willing to help me financially during my study time, and secondly they were willing to make an exception in my case. I would be given small roles as soon as I was ready. She even had a manuscript for me, and had seen a teacher who would help me study for the role. As I said, I was completely overwhelmed. I did not know how to answer but asked for a short reflection time. One thing I knew, at least, this was the biggest compliment I’d ever had in my life!”
Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman had previously been helped in their acting careers by scholarships from the Royal Dramatic Theatre.
“This was a really big decision for me. There was only one thing I could do, and that was to discuss the matter with Tersan.”
“He understood my views, understood how excited and grateful I was over the offer, and understood that in every person, even a young girl who is a leading model and engaged to an appropriate young man [Captain Modest], whom she also loves, there is a desire to do something with her life. I mean something big and demanding, something that of course can fail, but that can also lead to success and a career. All of this he understood.”
“But there was also something he wanted me to understand. We loved each other, and were engaged to be married. He did not want a wife who spent most of her life on her career, he wanted a wife dedicated to him.” End of current and career. [A BIG mistake there CG…]
Leaving the country
In 1955, Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons reported that Hjördis had studied dramatics but never put her training to use. This suggests that Hjördis may have taken her first steps towards an acting career before Carl Gustaf brought it to a halt.
As for her never putting her training to use – maybe not fully, but in 1945 three more movie bit-parts arrived, by coincidence or not. On 8th May, the day the The Second World War ended in Europe, filming commenced on ’13 Stolar’ (’13 Chairs’) in which Hjördis appeared, suitably, as a model.
The movie seems to only have survived in truncated form and isn’t available on DVD. The story involves the frantic search for money hidden in the upholstery of one of thirteen chairs. One of the chairs is at a fashion house, which I guess is where Hjördis, NK, and NK’s dresses come in.
The other NK models in the promotional photo are Margareta Berglund (in the white dress) and Margareta ‘Marjo’ Bergman (sitting in the patterned dress). Their personal experiences showed that, at least in Sweden, marriage did not necessarily mean an abrupt end to models’ careers.
Margareta Berglund married in 1946, and continued (as Margareta Nordlund) to travel as a star model for NK right through to 1959, when she was 40 years old.
Marjo Bergman was one of six students accepted into the Royal Dramatic Theatre’s acting school ‘Dramatens elevskola‘ in September 1945, possibly benefiting from Hjördis being unable to take up her place. Marjo landed a supporting role in the 1946 movie ‘Barbacka’, and despite marriage and children, continued to act in Stockholm theatre productions.
Of the three other female Dramatens elevskola students from the 1945 intake, Marit Bergson had roles in Swedish movies and theatre between 1948-1950, before marrying movie and theatre director Göran Gentele. Marianne Lindberg acted in Royal Dramatic Theatre productions for eleven years. She was apparently the only one from the class of 1945 to graduate, in 1948. In 1961 she married Swedish prince Sigvard Bernadotte. Ulrika Modin also had a long theatre career, working with the likes of Ingmar Bergman. (As of February 2023, Marit Bergson is still with us, now in her late 90s.)
Maybe Hjördis’ sights were set further from home: “I couldn’t wait to leave Sweden,” she later commented.
Over and out
In the remainder of 1945, Hjördis made two final movie appearances. She modelled clothes for a short documentary film called ‘Tidningar! Tidningar!'(‘Newspapers! Newspapers!’) made to celebrate 300 years of the Swedish press. It was shot in August, and premiered in February 1947.
A final (uncredited) movie appearance followed in September, with Hjördis playing a guards officer’s wife in ‘Brita i grosshandlarhuset’ (‘Brita in the Merchant’s House’ or ‘The Maid’). The story would have had resonance with Hjördis.
In short, Brita is the daughter of a poor crofter who moves to Stockholm and works as a maid for a rich merchant living on the exclusive Strandvägen street. She falls for the son of the house, but can they bridge the social divide?… Etcetera.
Filming on ‘Brita i grosshandlarhuset’ was completed on 28th November, but Hjördis was not in Sweden for the premiere in February 1946.
“And so it was. I refrained from a – possible – career as an actress and we started making plans for the future. It was decided that Carl Gustaf would travel to South America and that I would come over later and meet him in the US. ”
In the first week of November, Hjördis applied for a visa to travel to the US and booked to sail in December.
“He left, and two months later, for the first time in my life I left the country of my birth.” Ahead of departure she also left her hugely successful modelling career.
Next page: Mrs Hjördis Tersmeden
…Or you can explore a couple of background pages first to look at life in Wartime Sweden 1939-1945 then take a quiet stroll through a gallery of Hjördis Genberg’s 1945 fashion photos
Hjördis Genberg Niven 
I do think Hjordis’supposed acting ambititions are a red herring -she wanted to be a fashion designer….Presumably why she flirted with Igor Cassini whose brother was a well connected designer. (You mention Igor was tarred and feathered by an angry mob- curious that Sir Harry Oakes was similarly treated during the infamous murder under the Duke of Windsor’s nose).
LikeLike