Märta Torén Biography

In her tragically short career, Swedish actress Marta Toren spent more time in Hollywood and the European Continent than in her native country. Signed by Universal on the strength of her sole Swedish film Eviga Lankar (1947), Toren found herself in a French-Algerian role in Casabah (1948). She was Dick Powell's vis-a-vis in Rogue's Regiment (1948), a Foreign Legion opus set in Indochina, then was utilized as an Israeli freedom fighter in Sword in the Desert (1949). In brief, she played practically everything but a Swede in a variety of exotically mounted films. Sirocco (1951), which costarred her with Humphrey Bogart, was set in Syria; Assignment Paris (1952) was set in France; and from 1952 through 1956, Ms. Toren headlined films made in France and Spain. Marta Toren never did get back to the Swedish film industry; she died of a brain disease at the age of 31. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi