Sigrid Gurie

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Sigrid Gurie, also Known As: Sigrid Guri Haukelid (May 17, 1911-August 14, 1969) was a Norwegian American motion picture actress from the late 1930s to early 1940s.

Born in Brooklyn, New York to Bjørgulv and Sigrid Haukelidand, she was twin sister of Knut Haukelid, a Norwegian freedom fighter in World War II. In 1936, she arrived in Hollywood; film magnate Sam Goldwyn took credit for discovering her, and billed her as "the siren of the fjords." She starred as Kokashin, daughter of Kublai Khan, in the 1938 production of The Adventures of Marco Polo, and went on to give worthwhile performances in such films as Algiers (1938), Three Faces West (1940) and Voice in the Wind (1944). In the late 1940s she attended the well-known Kann Institute of Art, in West Hollywood, studying oils and portraiture. Among her works were landscapes, portraits and pen and ink sketches.

From 1961 to 1969 she lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she continued painting, and was also designing jewelry for Royal Copenhagen in Denmark. She entered the hospital in Mexico City on an emergency basis for a recurring kidney problem, developed a blood clot that passed through her lungs and led to her death.