Olava Øverland

Olava was born in Stavanger city and was raised by Johannes and Anna Ims. Johannes was a police officer and worked at Stavanger kretsfengsel. Anna was a midwife. Along with Olava, they also had a older son who also later became a police officer. She started her career at the Stavanger Theater in the early 1940's where she starred in The merry widow as one of the main characters, Hanna Glawari. At age 19, she joined as an active member of the resistance movement where she helped with hiding revolvers for her fellow resistance comrades inside the scene drapery. At other occasions, when there where German officers present in the theater, she would deliberately sing the famous resistance song "Om det smedle eller dundra", which was an direct insult to the German occupation. She did this many times directly in front of high ranking officers, and as they had little experience with the Norwegian language, they cheered along her. In honor to the city, she also made a famous song called "På Kafeer i Stavanger" (At cafee's in Stavanger), which would often sing. Alongside with the play "The merry widow", she starred in many other smaller roles and plays. After the war, in 1947, she moved to Oslo and become an actor at "Nationalteateret" (The national theater) and Chat Noir. There she performed along with many famous actors as Leif Juster, Einar Rose, Wenche Foss and Arve Opsahl among many others. She ended her acting career at the beginning of the fifties, when she joined the Academy of journalism. Later on, she became a journalist at Norway's largest newspaper, The Aftenposten. There, she also worked as a London correspondent.