Gwili Andre

Once publicized as "America's Most Beautiful Model," Danish-born Gwili Andre (born Gurli Andresen) enjoyed a brief career in films courtesy of producer David O. Selznick, who cast her opposite Richard Dix in Roar of the Dragon (1932). Playing a femme fatale of indeterminable nationality, Andre was obviously Selznick's idea of another Marlene Dietrich, whom she greatly resembled, but the reviewers were merciless in their scorn of both actress and film. She played out her contract with RKO as a Russian princess in the equally disliked Secrets of the French Police (1932) and, despite the title, was the "other woman" opposite Irene Dunne in No Other Woman (1933). She added a bit of Scandinavian verisimilitude to Joan Crawford's A Woman's Face (1941), but Gwili Andre once again failed to persuade anyone that she could act. Divorced from at least one millionaire husband, Andre, penniless and reportedly battling a weight problem, died in a fire in her Venice, CA, rooming house.

~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide