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Greta Garbo (September 18, 1905 – April 15,
1990) was a Sweden|Swedish actor|actress.

She was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm,
Sweden, the youngest of three children born to
Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871-1920) and Anna Lovisa
Johnasson (1872-1944). Her older sister and
brother were Alva and Sven. 

==Becoming an actress==
When Greta was fourteen, her father, to whom she
was extremely close, died, and her relationship
with her mother was, at best, strained.
Consequently, she was forced to leave school and
go to work. Her first job was as a lather girl in
a barbershop. She then became a clerk in a
department store, where she would also model
(person)|model for newspaper ads. Her first
film|motion picture aspirations came when she
appeared in an advertising short for the
department store where she worked. That led to
another short movie, which was seen by comedy
director Eric Petscher. He cast her in a small
part for the movie Peter The Tramp (1920 in
film|1920).

From 1922 to 1924, she studied at the prestigious
Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. While she was
there, she met the Sweden|Swedish director Mauritz
Stiller. He trained her in film|cinema acting
technique and cast her in a major role in Gösta
Berlings Saga (1924 in film|1924) (English: The
Story of Gösta Berling). He also gave her the
stage name Greta Garbo. She starred in two movies
in Sweden and one in Germany.

When Stiller went to the United States in 1925 to
work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he insisted that
Garbo be given a contract as well. But their
relationship came to an end as her fame grew. He
was fired by MGM and returned to Sweden in 1928,
where he died soon after.  


==Life in Hollywood==
The most important of Garbo's silent film|silent
movies were The Torrent (1926 in film|1926), Flesh
and the Devil (1927 in film|1927) and Love (1927
movie)|Love (1927 in film|1927). The latter two
she starred in with the popular leading man John
Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert. Her name was linked
with his in a much publicized romance, and she was
said to have left him standing at the altar when
she changed her mind about getting married. The
actress reportedly had several lesbian lovers,
including the actress Louise Brooks and the
writer/socialite Mercedes de Acosta. She also had
an on-and-off affair with the primarily homosexual
British photographer Cecil Beaton, to whom she was
briefly engaged.

Having achieved enormous success as a silent movie
star, she was one of the few who made the
transition to Sound film|talkies. Her low, husky
voice with Swedish language|Swedish accent was
heard on screen for the first time in Anna
Christie (1930 in film|1930), which was publicized
with the slogan "Garbo Talks." The movie was a
huge success, but Garbo personally hated her
performance. 

Unfortunately, her one-time fiancé, John Gilbert,
whose popularity was waning, did not fare as well
after the advent of sound and his career faltered.

When she was filming, if something happened that
she was not pleased with she would say, "I think
I'll go back to Sweden!" This would frighten the
movie studio heads, who gave in to her every wish.
She was known for always having a closed set to
all visitors. No one could watch as her scenes
were shot. Garbo appeared very seductive as the
World War I spy in the title role of Mata Hari
(1932 in film|1932). The censors complained about
her revealing outfit shown on the movie poster.
She was next part of an all star cast in Grand
Hotel (film)|Grand Hotel (1932 in film|1932).

She then had a contract dispute with MGM and did
not appear on the screen for almost two years.
They finally settled and she signed a new
contract, which granted her almost total control
over her movies. She exercised that control by
getting her leading man on Queen Christina
(film)|Queen Christina (1934 in film|1934),
Laurence Olivier, replaced with Gilbert.  David O.
Selznick wanted her cast as the dying heiress in
Dark Victory in 1935 in film|1935, but she
insisted on being cast instead in another screen
version of Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy's classic Anna
Karenina. She had made a silent version, Love,
with John Gilbert in (1927 in film|1927).

Her performance as the doomed courtesan in Camille
(movie)|Camille (1937 in film|1937) was called the
finest ever recorded on film. She then starred
opposite Melvyn Douglas in the comedy Ninotchka
(1939 in film|1939) by director Ernst Lubitsch. 

Garbo was nominated for the Academy Award for
Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress in a
Leading Role for Anna Christie (1930 in
film|1930), Romance (1930 movie)|Romance (1930 in
film|1930), Camille (movie)|Camille (1937 in
film|1937) and Ninotchka (1939 in film|1939). 

Greta Garbo was considered one of the most
glamorous movie stars of the 1920s and 1930s. She
was also famous for shunning publicity, which
became part of the Garbo mystique. Her famous
byline was, "I want to be alone," spoken with a
heavy accent which made the word 'want' sound like
'vont'.   Except at the very beginning of her
career, she granted no interviews, signed no
autographs, attended no premieres and answered no
fan mail.

Ninotchka was a successful attempt at lightening
Garbo's image and making her less exotic, complete
with the insertion of a scene in which her
character breaks into joyful laughter which
subsequently provided the film with its famous
tagline, "Garbo laughs!" A follow-up film,
Two-Faced Woman (1941), attempted to capitalize
upon this by casting Garbo in a romantic comedy
that featured her dancing, but this film was a
critical and box-office failure as it was felt
that the elements that had made Garbo unique were
all but eliminated.

It is often reported that Garbo chose to retire
from cinema after this film's failure, but already
by 1937 she was becoming more choosy about her
roles, and eventually years passed without her
agreeing to do another film.  By her own
admission, Garbo felt that after World War II the
world changed, perhaps forever.  

In 1949, Garbo filmed a screen test as she
considered reentering the movie business, but
otherwise never stepped in front of a movie camera
again. There were suggestions that she might
appear as the Duchess de Guermantes in a film
adaptation of "Remembrance of Things Past," but
this never came to fruition. She withdrew from the
entertainment world completely and moved to a
secluded life in New York City, refusing to make
any public appearances. Up until her death, Garbo
sightings were considered sport for paparazzi
photographers.

==Secluded retirement==
Garbo felt her movies had their proper place in
history and would gain in value. On February 9,
1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the
United States. She was awarded a special Academy
Award for her unforgettable performances in 1954.
In the mid-1950s, she bought a seven room
apartment in New York City|New York at 450 East
52nd Street, where she lived for the rest of her
life.

She would at times jet-set with some of the
world's best known personalities, such as
Aristotle Onassis and others, but chose to live a
private life. She spent time gardening flowers and
vegetables and was known for taking walks through
New York streets dressed casually and wearing
large sunglasses, always avoiding prying eyes, the
paparazzi and mass media|media attention.

Garbo lived the last years of her life in absolute
seclusion. She had invested very wisely, was known
for extreme frugality, and was a very wealthy
woman. It is rumored that she wrote an
autobiography just before her death but this book
has yet to be published if it exists. 

She died at age 84 as a result of renal failure in
New York and was cremated. She had previously been
operated and treated for breast cancer, which she
apparently beat. She left her estate to her niece.
Her ashes are buried at the
Skogskyrkogården|Skogskyrkogården Cemetery in
Stockholm, Sweden. 

Greta Garbo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood,
California|Hollywood.

==Garbo's legacy==

As part of a series of stamps issued by the U.S.
Postal Service commemorating movie stars, it was
announced in May of 2005  that Greta Garbo will be
appearing on an American postage stamp honoring
her enduring status as an icon.

==Filmography==

* Mr. and Mrs. Stockholm (1920) (short subject)
* How Not to Dress (1921) (short subject)
* A Happy Knight (1921) 
* Peter the Tramp (1922)
* The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924)
* The Joyless Street (1925)
* The Torrent (1926)
* The Temptress (1926)
* Flesh and the Devil (1926)
* Love (film) (1927)
* The Divine Woman (1928)
* The Mysterious Lady (1928)
* A Woman of Affairs (1928)
* Wild Orchids (1929)
* A Man's Man (1929) (cameo)
* The Single Standard (1929)
* The Kiss (film) (1929)
* Anna Christie (1930)
* Romance (1930 movie)|Romance (1930)
* Inspiration (film) (1931)
* Love Business (1931) (appears in gag photo)
* Anna Christie (1931) (German version)
* Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
* Mata Hari (1931)
* Grand Hotel (film) (1932)
* As You Desire Me (1932)
* Queen Christina (film) (1933)
* The Painted Veil (1934)
* Anna Karenina (film) (1935)
* Camille (movie)|Camille (1936)
* Conquest (film)|Conquest (1937)
* Ninotchka (1939)
* Two-Faced Woman (1941)

==External links==

*imdb name | id=0001256 | name=Greta Garbo
*http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/garbo.html Greta
Garbo - The Ultimate Star
*http://members.aol.com/svenska918/photos.html
Greta Garbo Photo Gallery
*http://www.greta-garbo.de Visit the largest
non-profit German website about Greta Garbo
*http://www.sidereality.com/volume3issue2/reviewsv
3n2/garbobrushesherteeth.htm "Garbo Brushes Her
Teeth!" by Gilbert Wesley Purdy - Book
review/essay with considerable biographical
material.