Scandinavian Film Stars: Natassia Malthe

My blog is mostly about actors from the old Hollywood studio days but from time to time I'll have a surprise entry. Today I'd like to highlight the beautiful Norwegian actress Natassia Malthe whose also been credited under the names, Natasha Malthe and Lina Teal.

This gorgeous Nordic brunette eats lutefisk and states Kate Winslet inspires her. She was born in the late 1970s in Oslo. She studied ballet at the Royal Winnepeg Ballet, Norwegian Opera house and the Goh Ballet Academy.

She is so breathtaking that she has modelled including Maxim magazine which may be hindering her from being taken seriously as an actress. Her major breakthrough was in the Jennifer Garner vechicle Elektra where they locked lips in a kissing scene. Some of her other films include Lake Placid, 40 Days and 40 Nights, and A Guy Thing. While not a household name, I wish her luck in her career. She is beautiful, sexy, talented, and Norwegian.

Scandinavian Film Stars: Sigrid Gurie

Sigrid Gurie is another Norwegian-American actress of many talents. Born Sigrid Guri Haukelid, she was born in Brooklyn, the twin sister of Knut Haukelid, a celebrated war hero leading the Norwegian Resistance in World War II whose leadership was depicted in the 1965 movie, "The Heroes of Telemark."

Her family returned to Norway when she was under a year old. Sigrid was educated in Norway, Sweden, and Belgium. While studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, she was spotted by an agent for Samuel Goldwyn at an art show. Goldwyn billed her as "The Siren of the Fjords." Yet this Nordic Siren's first roles were a Chinese in The Adventures of Marco Polo and an Algerian in Algiers.

Even though she had returned to Norway as an infant, Gurie's star waned when the press leaked she was born in Brooklyn. She continued to make films until 1948. That year she attended Kann Institute of Art studying oils and portraiture. A portrait of Sigrid's step-daughter, Lynda Abbott, once hung in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

While living in the cobblestoned colonial city of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, throughout the 1960s until her death, she continued painting and designing jewelry for the Royal Copenhagen in Denmark. She died in Mexico.