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Gwili Andre (February 4, 1908 in film|1908 -
February 5, 1959 in film|1959) was a
Denmark|Danish actor|actress who had a brief
career in Hollywood films.

Born Gurli Andresen in Copenhagen, Denmark, Andre
came to Hollywood in the early 1930s with the
intention of establishing herself as a film star. 
She appeared in the RKO Studios|RKO Studio films,
Roar of the Dragon and Secrets of the French
Police (both 1932) and began to attract attention
for her striking good looks.  These films provided
her with starring roles playing against such
established actors as Richard Dix, Zasu Pitts and
Frank Morgan, and RKO began promoting her for her
glamour.  A widespread publicity campaign ensured
that her name and face became well known to the
American public, but her next role in No Other
Woman (1933 opposite Irene Dunne), was not the
success the studio expected.  Over the next few
years she was relegated to supporting roles which
included the Joan Crawford picture A Woman's Face
(1941).
Her final role was a minor part in one of the
popular The Falcon series, titled The Falcon's
Brother in 1942.

She did not return to the screen, however she
spent the remainder of her life trying to
orchestrate a comeback.  As she faced further
rejection, she found solace in alcohol.  

In 1959, on the day after her birthday, she
committed suicide in a bizarre fashion.   Alone in
her apartment in Venice, California, Andre
surrounded herself with reams of publicity
photographs and press clippings, all of which
represented the career she had expected but had
not achieved.  Setting the paper alight, she
allowed herself to be consumed by the fire, and
died from her injuries.  Like Peg Entwistle and
Sidney Fox who also committed suicide when their
first periods of success were followed by failure
and disappointment, Andre is chiefly recalled as a
cautionary example of the indifference of the
Hollywood system and the anguish of a person
emotionally unable to cope with initial success
and promise followed by immediate and irreversible
failure.