Gloria Swanson explains why, after six husbands and five divorces, she still believes in the institution of marriage.
Hollywood legend Gloria Swanson is in Ireland to promote her autobiography 'Swanson on Swanson'. A silent movie star in the 1920s, she is most renowned for her role as the former silent screen actor Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard', released in 1950.
Gloria Swanson, who celebrates her 82nd birthday on 27 March 1981, has been married six times. Her husbands include actors, a French nobleman and an investment banker. As a child, Gloria Swanson says she dreamed of being happily married and this has endured through her life.
Her disastrous first marriage to the 30-year-old actor Wallace Beery took place when she was 17.
I wanted so much to be grown up. I wanted so much to be married, to wear a wedding ring, to have children.
Gloria Swanson believes marriage is the ideal way of living.
I'm very envious of people who have had happy marriages.
The fantasy of having 12 children was incompatible with Gloria Swanson's chosen career. She went on to have three children, two daughters, Gloria and Michelle, and one adopted son, Joseph, who died in 1975. The actress also has two great-grandchildren.
Gloria Swanson's sixth and final marriage to writer William Dufty is her longest. It took place in 1976 and lasted until her death in 1983.
This episode of 'The Late Late Show' was broadcast on 14 March 1981. The presenter is Gay Byrne.
