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Greta Garbo (September 18,
1905 – April 15, 1990) was a
Swedish-born actress during
Hollywood's silent film period
and part of its Golden Age.
Regarded as one of the greatest
and most inscrutable movie
stars ever produced by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the
Hollywood studio system, Garbo
received a 1955 Honorary Oscar
"for her unforgettable screen
performances" and was ranked as
the fifth greatest female star
of all time by the American
Film Institute. In addition, it
is claimed that the The
Guinness Book of World Records
named her as "the most
beautiful woman who ever
lived".
Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in
Stockholm, Sweden, the youngest
of three children born to Karl
Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920)
and Anna Lovisa Johansson
(1872–1944). Her older sister
and brother were Alva and
Sven.
 Becoming
an actress
When Garbo was fourteen years
old, her father, with whom she
was extremely close, died. She
was forced to leave school and
go to work. Her first job was
as a lather girl in a
barbershop. Greta states in the
book Garbo On Garbo page 33
that her relationship with her
mother was not strained.
She then became a clerk at the
department store PUB in
Stockholm, where she would also
model for newspaper
advertisements. Her first
motion picture aspirations came
when she appeared in a group of
short film advertisements for
the department store where she
worked, and they were
eventually seen by comedy
director Eric Petscher. He cast
her in a big part for his
upcoming film Peter The Tramp
in 1922, although her motion
picture debut was a year
earlier in a low-budget
film.
From 1922 to 1924, she studied
at the prestigious Royal
Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
While she was there, she met
director Mauritz Stiller. He
trained her in cinema acting
technique, gave her the stage
name "Greta Garbo", and cast
her in a major role in the
silent film Gösta Berlings Saga
(English: The Story of Gösta
Berling) in 1924, a
dramatization of the famous
novel by Nobel laureate Selma
Lagerlöf. She starred opposite
Swedish film actor Lars Hanson
and then starred in two more
movies in Sweden and one in
Germany (Die Freudlose Gasse -
The Joyless Street).
She and Stiller were brought to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Louis B.
Mayer when Gösta Berlings Saga
caught his attention. On
viewing the film, Mayer was
impressed with Stiller's
direction, but was much more
taken with Garbo's acting and
screen presence. According to
Mayer's daughter, Irene, with
whom he screened the film, it
was look and emotions that
emanated from her eyes that
would make her a star.
Unfortunately, her relationship
with Stiller came to an end as
her fame grew and he struggled
in the studio system. He was
fired by MGM and returned to
Sweden in 1928, where he died
soon after.
Throughout this period, Garbo
was slowly emerging as a
"Galatea" molded by a series of
corporate Pygmalions. In
photographs and films one can
see her change from a pudgy
shopgirl until she turns into
the perfect Sphinx, the "face"
captured in famous pictures by
Edward Steichen and Clarence
Bull, and other photographers
of the period.
Personal
life
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
her mystique. Except at the
very beginning of her career,
she granted no interviews,
signed no autographs, attended
no premieres, and answered no
fan mail.
Her famous byline was always
said to be, "I want to be
alone," spoken with a heavy
accent which made the word
'want' sound like vont. This
quote as noted comes from her
role in Grand Hotel. However,
Garbo later commented, "I never
said, 'I want to be alone.' I
only said, 'I want to be left
alone.' There is all the
difference."
Garbo kept her private affairs
out of the limelight. According
to private letters released in
Sweden in 2005 to mark the
centenary of her birth, she was
reclusive in part because she
was "self-obsessed, depressive,
and ashamed of her
latrine-cleaner father."
Some also suggest that Garbo
remained single in the United
States because of an unrequited
love for her drama school
sweetheart, the Swedish actress
Mimi Pollak. Garbo's personal
letters recently released to
the public indicate that she
remained in love with Pollak
for the rest of her life. When
Pollak announced she was
pregnant, Garbo wrote: "We
cannot help our nature, as God
has created it. But I have
always thought you and I
belonged together."
Garbo's biographer Barry Paris
notes that she was "technically
bisexual, predominantly
lesbian, and increasingly
asexual as the years went by."
It has been indicated that
Garbo struggled greatly with
her sexuality, only becoming
involved with other women in
affairs that she could
control.
Her most famous heterosexual
relationship was with actor
John Gilbert. They starred
together for the first time in
the classic Flesh and the Devil
in 1926. Their on-screen
"erotic intensity" soon
translated into an off-camera
romance, and by the end of
production Garbo had moved in
with Gilbert. Gilbert is said
to have proposed to Garbo at
least three times. She
reportedly wanted to quit films
if they married, but Gilbert
wanted her to continue her
career. When a marriage was
finally arranged in 1927, she
failed to show up at the
ceremony. After their affair
ended, Garbo showed great
loyalty to Gilbert after his
career collapsed with the
coming of sound films, and
insisted that he appear with
her in 1933's Queen
Christina.
Secluded
retirement
Gravestone of Greta GarboGarbo
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. In 1954 she was
awarded a special Academy Award
for her unforgettable
performances.
In 1953, she bought a
seven-room apartment in New
York City at 450 East 52nd
Street, where she lived for the
rest of her life. She
reportedly never got over the
unfinished affair she had with
actress Mimi Pollak in her
youth, and in later life became
bitter over it.
She would at times jet-set with
some of the world's best known
personalities such as Aristotle
Onassis and Cecil Beaton, but
chose to live a private life.
She was known for taking long
walks through the New York
streets dressed casually and
wearing large sunglasses,
always avoiding prying eyes,
the paparazzi, and 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 even exists.
She died in New York on April
15th, 1990, at the age of 84,
as a result of end stage renal
disease (ESRD) and pneumonia,
and was cremated. She had
previously been operated on and
treated for breast cancer,
which she overcame.
She left her entire estate to
her niece, Gray Reisfeld, and
nothing to the elderly female
companion with whom she lived
for many years, Claire.
Her ashes are buried at the
Skogskyrkogården Cemetery in
Stockholm, Sweden.
For her contributions to
cinema, she has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901
Hollywood Boulevard. In
addition, in 2005 the U.S.
Postal Service and Sweden Post
jointly issued two
commemorative postage stamps
bearing her likeness.
Source : Some
of the information on this page
came from a Wikipedia
article and is
licensed under the GNU
Documentation License.
©2008
www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Greta
Garbo - Generator
- Biography