Clark Gable and Charles Laughton which happened to be
sailing alongside at the time.
By another coincidence, actor Robert Montgomery was
visiting the ship that day. As a result of a friendship
struck up that morning and Niven's acute need for mon
ey Montgomery talked him into a screen test at MGM.
Soon he appeared in picture after picture always
dressed in sandals, serape, and sombrero. "It seems they
were making nothing but Westerns, and my accent was so
British, they always cast me as a Mexican without lines."
And there he remained until Sam Goldwyn put him under
contract the following year at $65 a week.
Niven was so elated at this stupendous salary that he
rushed to the nearest automobile dealer to buy a new con
vertibleon time. When he drove it into the studio lot an
hour later, the gateman told him that Mr. Goldwyn wanted
to see him right away. "He told me I was starting my 12
week layoff period," Niven remembered. The car went back
to the showroom, and Niven continued to ride streetcars
and buses for another three months!
Until he rejoined the British Army in 1939 (unlike
other stars, Niven received no studio pay while serving his
country) , he had appeared in 23 films and gradually estab
lished himself as an actor and a screen favorite. After six
and a half years of service, he returned, but to his sorrow,
Goldwyn insisted on taking up his contract where it had
left off with five more years to go!
Niven wasn't happy about his roles or his salary. One
day he stormed into Goldwyn's office and demanded to be
released from his contract. As he recalled later, "I be
lieved my own publicity that I was God's gift to Holly
wood. But I must say I was a bit disturbed when Mr. Gold
wyn gave in so easily. Still, I was pleased to have my free
dom until I found out that other studios weren't exactly
breaking their necks for my services."
Working on the theory that when things are at their
worst, it's time to do something spectacular, he took his
wife Hjordis and their children, David and Jamie, to Bar
bados for a pleasant vacation, which drained his bank ac
count to the last cent
Scenes from his latest film,
"The Pink Panther,'' reveal
that David Niven's up to his
old acting magic again. His
cottar is Claudia Cardinale.
Fortunately,. Otto Preminger offered Niven one of the
leads in "The Moon Is Blue," which turned out to be a
huge success, critically as well as financially. The career
problems of David Niven who had taken a small salary
against a percentage of the picture were over.
While David's professional life, in spite of setbacks,
sounds like a romp, his private life has been touched by
almost constant tragedy. David's father, William Graham
Niven, was killed at 25 in the Dardanelles during World
War I, when David was barely five. His mother, who was
French, died when he was 18. He also lost one brother.
His first wife, the former Primula Rollo, was killed in
California in 1946 during a parlor game at a friend's
house, when she opened a wrong door and fell down the
cellar stairs. David was left with the care of two sons
David, now 19, who is learning the legal aspects of the
talent-agency business in Rome, and Jamie, 16, who at
tends school in Lausanne, Switzerland.
David met his second wife quite by chance. In 1948, a
Swedish model, Hjordis Tersmeden, was flying from
New York to Stockholm. She was temporarily stranded in
London because of fog. On the plane, Hjordis met a friend
of David's who asked if she would mind stopping at the
studio with him so he could say hello to David. "She was
sitting in my chair when I saw her," David recalled. "The
picture had gone over schedule, and I was tired and upset
that day, so I told the assistant director to get her out."
Either his anger wasn't very convincing, or it blew over
fast when he took a closer look at the gorgeous blonde who
had dispossessed him. He promptly reversed his point of
view and they were married a week later.
It shouldn't be surprising that David Niven would make
a relatively quick decision on his choice of a mate when
he sometimes debates for half an hour on what kind of
hors d'oeuvre to select, or spends a week of sleepless
nights before he decides what model car to order. It is
only further proof that David has rightfully earned his
reputation as Hollywood's most contradictory and unpre
dictable actor I
EXPECT
THE
A frugal spendthrift, a carefree
worrier these are a few of the contradictions
that make up this blithe spirit
UNEXPECTED
By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER
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