Hilda Borgström

Who was Hilda Borgström?

Hilda Teresia Borgström was a Swedish stage and film actress. Born in Stockholm, Borgström is considered one of Sweden's most legendary silent film actresses. She made her film debut in 1912. She starred in leading parts in Victor Sjöström's classic silent films Ingeborg Holm and Körkarlen in 1921. Borgström started out to be a dancer and trained at the old Royal Theatre's ballet school in Stockholm 1880-87. Later she decided to turn to the theatre instead and studied drama to become an actress. The professional debut on stage came in 1890 at one of Albert Ranft's theatres. She was an actress of Sweden's national stage, the Royal Dramatic Theatre, between 1900–1912 and 1920-1938. Here, alongside becoming a star on film, she made a number of remarkable and critically acclaimed performances.

She retired officially from stage in 1938, and turned back to filming. She appeared in several notable supporting parts in Swedish films in the 1930s-50s, for example in Ingmar Bergman's early 1948 film Music in Darkness, in the thriller Ett brott and in Kejsarn av Portugallien, based on the novel by Selma Lagerlöf, and in a pair of films by Hasse Ekman such as Kungliga patrasket and Flickan från tredje raden. Borgström was also a teacher in the performing arts at the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school; Dramatens elevskola, in the 1930s-40s. Altogether she made some 80 parts on film.