Nils Asther

Nils Anton Alfhild Asther (17 January 1897 – 19 October 1981) was a Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid-1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called the male Greta Garbo.

During Nils lifetime it was a stigma to be gay. He grew up in a deeply religious Victorian home, thinking homosexuality was a sin and society viewed homosexuality as a disease. In Sweden it was called "unnatural fornication." While sexual relations between adults of the same sex were legalized in 1944, the medical classification of homosexuality as a form of mental disorder persisted until 1979. The theatrical community and the film industry in the 1920s accepted gay actors with little reservation, always provided they remained discreet about their sexual orientation and there was no public suggestion of impropriety. Nils Asther was unabashedly gay, to the point where he proposed marriage to Greta Garbo to hide the true nature of his sexual preferences. "Sailor” was a favored term for Greta Garbo's male, gay/bisexual friends. In 1929 during filming on location in Catalina filming The Single Standard with Nils Asther, she was overheard berating the actor for grabbing her so roughly. “I'm not one of your sailors,” she reminded him. Rumors exist from the early 1930s that Nils had relationships with Swedish director Mauritz Stiller and Swedish writer Hjalmar Bergman and with male colleagues. Nils mention some of this in his memoirs. He had a long term relationship with actor/stuntman and WWII navy soldier Ken DuMain. (Birth: Sep. 14, 1923, Rylie, Dallas County, Texas, USA, Death: Aug. 21, 2001, Los Angeles County, California, USA, Inscription: PHM1 US NAVY). According to Ken DuMain, he met Nils Asther on Hollywood Boulevard in the early 1940s and enjoyed a long term relationship. "Oh, you're an actor? What have you been in?" Asther said "I starred with Greta Garbo in The Single Standard". "I didn't see it." He said, "Then I did Wild Orchids opposite Garbo". "I said, I didn't see that one either." "And then we ended up in bed together. When I left, he slipped a bill in my hands - fifty dollars. I felt like a hooker, but then he said "I would like to see you more often. Here is my number. Call me whenever you're in town". The response of Asther to Ken DuMain is unusual in that, out of fear of being "outed", Hollywood performers were leery of being identified by their pickups. Asther probably felt safe with DuMain in part because his career was virtually over and also because his pickup was from out of town.