In this first-ever biography of Greer Garson, Michael Troyan sweeps away the many myths that even today veil her life. The true origins of her birth, her fairy-tale discovery in Hollywood, and her career struggles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are revealed for the first time. Garson combined an everywoman quality with grace, charm, and refinement. She won the Academy Award in 1941 for her role in Mrs. Miniver, and for the next decade she reigned as the queen of MGM. Co-star Christopher Plummer remembered, "Here was a siren who had depth, strength, dignity, and humor who could inspire great trust, suggest deep intellect and whose misty languorous eyes melted your heart away!" Garson earned a total of seven Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, and fourteen of her films premiered at Radio City Music Hall, playing for a total of eighty-four weeks--a record never equaled by any other actress. She was a central figure in the golden age of the studios, working with legendary performers Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, Joan Crawford, Robert Mitchum, Debbie Reynolds, and Walter Pidgeon. Garson's experiences offer a fascinating glimpse at the studio system in the years when stars were closely linked to a particular studio and moguls such as L.B. Mayer broke or made careers. With the benefit of exclusive access to studio production files, personal letters and diaries, and the cooperation of her family, Troyan explores the triumphs and tragedies of her personal life, a story more colorful than any role she played on screen.
"(Troyan) successfully evokes the enormous drive, self-awareness and capacity for kindness of an actress who, inevitably, was more complex than her screen image indicated." -- Dallas Morning News
"The author has done his homework in researching and writing this critical biography of legendary superstar Greer Garson. He presents Garson as a strong-willed, stubborn individual when with the studio moguls -- she was not quite the elegant that she often played in pictures." -- Gene Phillips
"MGM's great lady was a bit of an Irish cut-up, radiant, funny, brave, and smart. Michael Troyan knows that, and has written a most entertaining book about my friend, Greer." -- Gregory Peck
"A sweet, contained view of Louis B. Mayer's favorite actress and Hollywood's icon of WWII fortitude." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Amid the glowing tributes that Troyan offers in his diligent account of this most elegant of stars, one poignant headline that ran in many newspapers after her death read simply: Goodbye, Mrs. Miniver." -- Movie Maker
"The biography is brilliant and author Troyan dares to delve in to aspects of her life that Garson might otherwise have wished to remain dormant. But in every case, Michael presents his findings in a fair and well-balanced manner, allowing readers to determine for themselves the true nature of a nurturing, nourishing, loving woman." -- Palo Alto Daily News
"In a definitive biography, Troyan takes readers from Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson's birth in London in 1904 to her death in Dallas in 1996 as she held the hand of her good friend, the pianist Van Cliburn." -- Publishers Weekly
"The rich, well-written and heavily researched book is a touching memoir revealing much about the actress who was 'Queen of MGM' and a top box office draw for most of the 1940s." -- The Albuquerque Tribune
