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Advertised as the "Swedish Mary Pickford," silent screen actress Sigrid Holmquist arrived with quite a bit of fanfare in New York City in October 1920. The blonde Swedish girl was clutching her contract with Paramount, a studio that had just lost Pickford's closest rival, Marguerite Clark, to retirement. Holmquist, of course, never became another Marguerite Clark -- much less a new Pickford -- but she did brighten a few otherwise dull melodramas. Her American debut, Just Around the Corner (1922), in which she played a working class girl persuading a rich playboy to pose as her fiancé, was directed by Pickford's favorite scenarist, Frances Marion. The press made much of Marion's handsome husband, future Western star Fred Thomson, and generally overlooked Holmquist's debut. Despite good reviews, the comedy-drama was too low-key to make much of an impact and Holmquist found herself reduced to playing second leads. The studio let her go in 1924 and she mainly worked for poverty row companies until a severe case of the so-called "Klieg-eyes" -- a common malaise caused by the extremely bright arc lights used to illuminate movie sets -- forced her to retire in 1925. She finished on a high note, however, co-starring in two pleasant comedies with Johnny Hines: The Early Bird and The Crackerjack. Leaving Hollywood, Holmquist moved to London, England, with her first husband, a banker. In 1936, she was reported to be out of work and penniless, but by 1941, she had re-married and resettled in Sydney, Australia, apparently now a successful business woman.