[Deathwatch] Signe Hasso, Swedish-born actress, 91

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

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Swedish-Born Movie Star Signe Hasso Dies at 91	
Sun Jun 9, 7:17 PM ET 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Swedish-born actress Signe Hasso, whose
nine-decade career spanned several major World War II-era films
including "House on 92nd Street" and "A Double Life," died in Los
Angeles at 91, a hospital spokeswoman said on Sunday. 

   
Hasso died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of undisclosed
causes on Friday, a hospital spokeswoman said. 

She was born Signe Larsson on Aug. 10, 1910. 

The blond, classical-featured actress began her career at 13 in a play
at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. 

She made her final TV appearance last year in a documentary about her
friend and countrywoman, Greta Garbo, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

At 16, Hasso became the youngest acting student in the history of the
Royal Dramatic Theater. She worked steadily in European films and stage
throughout the 1930s. 

She married Harry Hasso and had a son, who would die in the mid-1950s
in a motorcycle accident. 

In 1940, Hasso moved to Los Angeles and signed a contract with RKO.
When that deal went nowhere, Hasso moved to New York to pursue a stage
career. 

In the mid-1940s, Hasso returned to Hollywood to sign with MGM,
starring in a series of strong leading-lady parts. 

In 1947, she starred opposite Ronald Colman in the acclaimed "A Double
Life," an exploration of an actor who becomes obsessed by his role as
Othello. Hasso played Colman's wife. 

She made a number of films with top-flight directors during that
period, including "The House on 92 Street" with Henry Hathaway, "The
Seventh Cross" with Fred Zinneman and "Heaven Can Wait" with Ernst
Lubitsch. 

She continued to make films in Scandinavia and the United States into
the 1950s, though her career began shifting toward television guest
appearances as she aged. 

Hasso also won praise and awards as a lyricist for Swedish folk songs
and as a writer. She received the equivalent of a knighthood from the
King of Sweden in 1972,