Ghita Nørby

Copenhagen, Denmark

Biography

Nørby was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the daughter of opera singer Einar Nørby. She studied two years at the Danish Royal Theatre. She has received a number of awards and recognitions including the Ingenio et Arti medal in 2006. At the 27th Guldbagge Awards she was nominated for the award for Best Actress for her role in Freud's Leaving Home. She has been married a number of times. First in 1956 to architect Mogens Garth-Grüner, and then to actor Henrik Wiehe. She met her next husband, Italian pop singer/actor Dario Campeotto, on the set of a film they were shooting in 1962. They were married in 1963, and had a son, actor Giacomo Campeotto, in 1964. They were divorced in 1969. She married a fourth time to actor Jørgen Reenberg in April 1970. She is currently married to pianist/composer, Svend Skipper.

Movies

Matador is a Danish TV series produced and shown between 1978 and 1982. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The banker Hans Christian Varnæs, an established local worthy, and social climber Mads Skjern, who arrives in town as the series opens. The name Matador was taken from the localised edition of the boardgame Monopoly, also the series' tentative English title. In addition, in contemporary Danish a "matador" is often used to describe a business tycoon, in the series referring to the character of Mads Skjern and his craftiness as a self-made entrepreneur. Directed by famed Danish film maker Erik Balling, Matador was the idea of author Lise Nørgaard who wrote the bulk of the episodes alongside Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen and Paul Hammerich. The series is one of the most well-known and popular examples of Danish television and represents the peak of longtime development of Danish TV drama by the public service channel Danmarks Radio. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, partly because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II.

More info
Matador
1978