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Nancy Olson Livingston was 22 when “Sunset Boulevard” was released in 1950 and made her a sought-after actress.
The movie, which starred Gloria Swanson and William Holden, earned 11 Oscar nominations, including one for best actress in a supporting role for Olson Livingston. It tells the tale of Norma Desmond (Swanson), an aging screen siren who refused to accept that her stardom had faded.
Olson Livingston, now 96, said it made her realize she didn’t want fame.
‘SUNSET BOULEVARD’ STAR NANCY OLSON LIVINGSTON RECALLS ‘DARING SCRIPT,’ MEETING MARILYN MONROE AND WALT DISNEY
Nancy Olson Livingston, who originally went by Nancy Olson, circa 1951. (Everett Photos)
“Movie stars were sad creatures,” the actress told Hollywood Reporter’s “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast. “I understood [the character] Norma Desmond, and I understood Marilyn Monroe. And I wanted a life.”
“I knew that movie stars had a period of time, and then they were thrown away,” Olson Livingston shared. “What more did I need to know than about Norma Desmond?”
Nancy Olson Livingston said she had no desire to be a movie star. (John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
“I’m a doctor’s daughter from the Midwest,” said Olson Livingston. “I said, ‘How many movie stars are happily married, have children, are part of larger families, aunts, uncles, cousins,’ which was my life? Nobody. So, I couldn’t imagine existing in the world.”
American actors William Holden (1918–1981) as Joe Gillis and Nancy Olson as Betty Schaefer in “Sunset Boulevard,” directed by Billy Wilder, 1950. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
According to the outlet, Olson Livingston did appear in more movies during the ‘50s. But by the mid-‘60s, she began to prioritize having a life beyond the set.
“I moved to New York, and I said, ‘I do not want to be a movie star,’” Olson Livingston recalled. “And they said, ‘You’ve got no more money. We’re gonna renew your contract with a much larger… amount of money.”
“I’m a doctor’s daughter from the Midwest. I said, ‘How many movie stars are happily married, have children, are part of larger families, aunts, uncles, cousins,’ which was my life? Nobody. So, I couldn’t imagine existing in the world.”
Nancy Olson Livingston was eager to have a family, not chase fame. (Getty Images)
Olson Livingston said that at the time, she was working 11-hour days, six days a week. She was married to Broadway lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, and they shared two daughters.
Fame no longer sounded exciting.
WATCH: ‘SUNSET BOULEVARD’ STAR NANCY OLSON LIVINGSTON RECALLS DARING SCRIPT, MEETING MARILYN MONROE AND WALT DISNEY
“I said, ‘I’m sorry. I cannot be a movie star,’” said Olson Livingston. “I was so tired.”
Olson Livingston’s marriage to Lerner lasted from 1950 to 1957. In 1962, she married longtime Capitol Records executive Alan W. Livingston, with whom she shared a son.
“That’s a happy part of my life… my children and grandchildren,” she said.
Nancy Olson Livingston received an Oscar nomination for best actress in a supporting role for her work in “Sunset Boulevard.” (LMPC via Getty Images)
Looking back at “Sunset Boulevard,” Olson Livingston told the outlet that she didn’t expect to win an Oscar.
“I did not win,” she said. “I felt very rewarded being nominated, and that was quite enough.”
“Sunset Boulevard” won three Academy Awards: for the score, production design and screenplay.
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“Sunset Boulevard” starred Gloria Swanson, who played former silent screen star Norma Desmond. (FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)
“Gloria Swanson and [director] Billy Wilder, the picture, everything should have won,” she said.
According to the outlet, Olson Livingston officially retired from acting in the mid-‘80s. She went on to detail her life in Hollywood for her 2022 memoir, “A Front Row Seat.”
In the book, Olson Livingston described what it was like meeting many fellow stars from Hollywood’s golden era. When Fox News Digital asked her at the time what it was like meeting Marilyn Monroe, Olson Livingston replied, “Bizarre.”
In her memoir, “A Front Row Seat,” Nancy Olson Livingston recalled meeting Marilyn Monroe. (Frank Povolny/Twentieth Century Fox/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
“She came from a very unhappy childhood,” she explained about Hollywood’s most famous sex symbol. “Her survival depended on her own being. It depended on being a movie star.
“And she allowed them to make her over the top in her sexuality, in her beauty, in her everything. I met her several times [in] those years. She was [always] clinging to a man and looking up at them… and [she] would speak to them as if she were a little girl, and he was her daddy.”
Olson Livingston’s last film was 1955’s “Battle Cry” before she immersed herself in a new role — motherhood. However, it was Walt Disney who brought her back to Hollywood for 1960’s “Pollyanna,” starring Hayley Mills.
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Nancy Olson Livingston starred in 1960’s “Pollyanna” opposite Hayley Mills. (LMPC via Getty Images)
“I was in Mallorca waiting to pick up my children who were visiting their father and their new stepmother,” she explained. “They said, ‘Walt Disney is on the phone.’ I thought, ‘Really? That’s ridiculous.’ But that was Walt Disney… friendly… He said, ‘We have nothing, but stars… we want you.’”
“I never asked how much the salary was,” Olson Livingston insisted. “I just thought it would be an interesting experience that would be different from anything else I’d ever experienced before. And it was.”
Actress Nancy Olson Livingston attends the screening of “Sunset Boulevard” at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 28, 2018, in Hollywood, California. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for TCM)
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“I walked on the Disney lot… and it was like I was walking on the streets of a small town,” Olson Livingston continued. “Everybody knew each other. Everybody knew each other’s names. Everybody called Mr. Disney Walt… It was fun making the film, and they were all gifted performers. It became a huge hit.”
