Greta Thyssen: No Greater Grison

Greta Thyssen (1927-2018) lived at the center of a Venn Diagram that included the overlapping categories of a) Hollywood blonde bombshells of the Marilyn Monroe / Jayne Mansfield/ Mamie Van Doren / Diana Dors / Sabrina sort, and b) Scandinavian-Germanic actress/models like Britt Ekland, Anita Ekberg, Elke Sommer, and Ursula Andress.

Having been named Miss Denmark in 1951, Thyssen wasted no time in coming to the U.S. to try her luck in Hollywood. She was initially kicked out in 1953 for violating immigration laws, but she returned and by 1956, she had a real career. Americans first knew her as the “Pirate Girl” on the game show Treasure Hunt (1956-58) opposite emcee Jan Murray. She was Marilyn Monroe’s body double in Bus Stop (1956); her first actual big screen role was in Accused of Murder that same year.

She was in three of the Three Stooges last shorts, Quiz Whizz (1958), Pies and Guys (1958) and Sappy Bull Fighters (1959), as well as John CassavetesShadows (1958), and some lesser known films like The Beast of Budapest (1958), Terror is a Man (1959), Catch Me If You Can (1959), Three Blondes in His Life (1961), Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) and The Double Barreled Detective Story (1965). On the small screen, she could be seen on Dragnet, Perry Mason, Bachelor Father, and The Steve Allen Plymouth Show.

Thyssen’s last screen credit was the ultra low-budget Cottonpickin’ Chickenpickers (1967), the sort of a film that would make anyone retire from movies, and she did. She gave birth to her first and only child in 1969, and took up painting.

Oh! And this is a Greater Grison. They are mustelids, the same mammalian family that includes weasels, wolverines, badgers, otters, martens, and stoats: 

For more on show biz history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.