Greta Garbo born
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a
SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable. Garbo was nominated four times for an Academy Award and received an honorary one in 1954 for her "unforgettable screen performances". She also won the
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActressThe New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
for both
Anna KareninaAnna Karenina is a 1935 film directed by Clarence Brown. The film stars Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone and Maureen O'Sullivan. It is the most famous and critically acclaimed film adaptation of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There are several other film adaptations of the novel.In New...
(1935) and
CamilleCamille is an American romantic drama film directed by George Cukor and produced by Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoe Akins and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils...
(1936). In 1999, the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked Garbo fifth on their list of
greatest female stars of all timePart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends of American cinema, 25 male and 25 female...
, after
Katharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
,
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
,
Audrey HepburnAudrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, and
Ingrid BergmanIngrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
.
Garbo launched her career with a leading role in the 1924 Swedish film
The Saga of Gosta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of
Louis B. MayerLouis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
, chief executive of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film,
TorrentTorrent is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Monta Bell , based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and released on February 21, 1926.Torrent was the first American film starring Swedish actress Greta Garbo...
, released in 1926; a year later, her performance in
Flesh and the DevilFlesh and the Devil is an MGM romantic drama silent film. It stars Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, and Barbara Kent, directed by Clarence Brown, and based on the play The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann....
, her third movie, made her an international superstar.
With her first talking film,
Anna ChristieAnna Christie is a 1930 MGM Pre-Code drama film adaptation of the 1922 play by Eugene O'Neill. It was adapted by Frances Marion, produced and directed by Clarence Brown with Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg as co-producers. The cinematography was by William H...
(1930), she received her first Academy Award nomination. MGM marketers enticed the public with the catch-phrase "Garbo talks!" That same year she won a second Oscar nomination for her performance in
RomanceRomance is a 1930 film which tells the story of a bishop sharing a cautionary tale with a young man, who is going against the wishes of his family, of the dangers of falling in love with "fallen women", by using a story of naivete from his past...
. In 1932, her immense popularity allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract, and she became increasingly choosy about her roles. Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan
Marguerite GautierThe Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
in
Camille to be her finest. The role gained her a third Academy Award nomination. After working exclusively in dramatic films, Garbo turned to comedy with
NinotchkaNinotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
(1939), which earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination, and
Two-Faced WomanTwo-Faced Woman is a romantic comedy made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon...
(1941).
In 1941, she retired after appearing in 27 films. Although she was offered many opportunities to return to the screen, she declined most of them. Instead, she lived a private life, shunning publicity.
Childhood and youth
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in
StockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden. She was the third and youngest child of Anna Lovisa (
néeNEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Karlsson, 1872–1944)—a homemaker and later employee at a jam factory—and Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920), a laborer. She had two siblings: Sven Alfred (1898–1967) and Alva Maria (1903–1926).
Her parents met in Stockholm where her father made occasional trips from his home in
FrinnarydFrinnaryd is a locality situated in Aneby Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 225 inhabitants in 2005....
. He moved to Stockholm to become independent, and worked in various odd jobs, such as street cleaner, grocer, factory worker and butcher's assistant. He married Anna, who had recently relocated from
HögsbyHögsby is a locality and the seat of Högsby Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 1,965 inhabitants in 2005.Other "big" places in the Högsby Municipality are: Långemåla, Fågelfors, Berga and Fagerhult. None of these have more than 500 inhabitants...
. The Gustafssons were impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No. 32. They raised their three children in a working-class district regarded as the city's slum. Garbo would later recall:
As a child, Garbo was a shy daydreamer. She hated school and preferred to play alone. Yet she was an a imaginative child, and a natural leader who became interested in theatre at an early age. She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances and dreamed about becoming an actress. Later, she would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent the
Mosebacke TheaterMosebacke is a part of Södermalm in Stockholm, Sweden where cultural events take place. There is a restaurant and theater, , and a stage where local legends like Cornelis Vreeswijk have performed....
. At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school and typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time she did not attend high school; she would later confess she had an inferiority complex about this.
In the winter of 1919, the Spanish flu spread throughout Stockholm, and Garbo's father, to whom she was very close, became ill. He began missing work and eventually lost his job. Garbo stayed at home looking after him and taking him to the hospital for weekly treatments. In 1920, when she was 14 years old, he died. Alva, Garbo's older sister, began work in an insurance office while studying stenography.
Early career (1920–1924)
She began her first job in 1920 as a soap-lather girl in a barbershop. Eventually, her friends advised to look for a better job. She then applied for, and accepted, a position in the
PUB department storePUB is one of the major department stores in Stockholm, Sweden, located in two buildings at Hötorget, Stockholm city center. PUB was opened in 1882 and rapidly expanded...
, running errands and working in the millinery department. Before long, she began modeling hats for the store's catalogs. Her success led to a more lucrative job as a fashion model for PUB. In 1921, a director of film commercials for the store cast Garbo in a role advertising women's clothing. Thus began Garbo's cinematic career. In 1922, Garbo caught the attention of director Erik Arthur Petschler who gave her a part in his short comedy,
Peter the Tramp.
From 1922 to 1924, she studied at
The Royal Dramatic Theatre's Acting SchoolDramatens elevskola, i.e. Kungliga Dramatiska Teaterns Elevskola, or in Eng: The Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school, was the acting school of Sweden's national stage, The Royal Dramatic Theatre, and for many years seen as the foremost theatre school and drama education for Swedish stage actors...
in Stockholm. She was recruited in 1924 by director
Mauritz StillerMauritz Stiller was a Finnish-Swedish actor, screenwriter and silent film director, who was mostly active in Sweden.-Life:...
to play a principal part in his classic film
The Saga of Gosta Berling, a dramatization of the famous novel by Nobel Prize winner
Selma LagerlöfSelma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
. She played opposite Swedish film actor
Lars HansonLars Hanson was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era.-Biography:...
. Stiller became her mentor, training her as a film actress and managing all aspects of her nascent career. She followed her role in
Gosta Berling with a starring role in the 1925 German film
Die freudlose GasseJoyless Street , a film based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in France, is one of the first films of the "New Objectivity“ movement. Greta Garbo stars in her second major role...
(
The Joyless Street or
The Street of Sorrow), directed by G. W. Pabst and co-starring
Asta NielsenAsta Nielsen , was a Danish silent film actress who was one of the most popular leading ladies of the 1910s and one of the first international movie stars. Seventy of Nielsen's 74 films were made in Germany where she was known simply as Die Asta...
.
Accounts differ on the circumstances of her first contract with
Louis B. MayerLouis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
, at that time vice president and general manager of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).
Victor Seastrom, a respected Swedish director at MGM, was good friends with Stiller and encouraged Mayer to meet him on a trip to Berlin. There are two versions of what happened next. In one, Mayer, always looking for new talent, had done his research and was interested in Stiller. He made an offer but Stiller demanded that Garbo be part of any contract, convinced that she would be an asset to his career. Mayer balked, but eventually agreed to a private viewing of
Gosta Berling. He was immediately struck by Garbo's presence and became more interested in her than in Stiller. "It was her eyes", his daughter recalled him saying; "I can make a star out of her." In the second version, Mayer had already seen
Gosta Berling before his Berlin trip and Garbo was his primary interest. On the way to the screening, Mayer said to his daughter, "This director is wonderful but what we really ought to look at is the girl.... The girl, look at the girl!" In any case, a contract was drafted that included both of them and after several months, the two set sail for America on the last day of June 1925.
Silent films (1925–1929)
Stiller and Garbo arrived in Hollywood in the first week of July 1925. Although she expected to work with Stiller on her first film, she was cast in
Torrent (1926), an adaptation of a novel by
Vicente Blasco IbáñezVicente Blasco Ibáñez was a Spanish realist novelist writing in Spanish, a screenwriter and occasional film director....
, with director
Monta BellMonta Bell was an American film director, film producer and film editor.-Biography:Starting as a journalist in Washington DC, Bell later played on stage and entered films in 1923 as an actor. Charlie Chaplin employed Bell as a film editor and assistant director and in 1924, he became a...
. She displaced
Aileen PringleAileen Pringle was an American stage and film actress during the silent film era.-Early life:Born Aileen Bisbee into a prominent and wealthy San Francisco, California family and educated in Europe, Pringle began her acting career shortly after her 1916 marriage to Charles McKenzie Pringle, the son...
, ten years her senior, and played a vamp opposite
Ricardo CortezJacob Krantz , known by his stage name Ricardo Cortez, was an American film actor who began his career during the silent era.-Life and career:...
.
Torrent did well at the box office despite its cool reception by the trade press. But Garbo's performance was acclaimed.
The success led
Irving ThalbergIrving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
, head of production at MGM (who had at first labeled Garbo "absolutely unusable"), to cast her in a similar role in
The TemptressThe Temptress is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo. Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore and Roy D'Arcy it premiered on October 10, 1926...
(1926), based on another Ibáñez novel. After only one film, she was given top billing, playing opposite
Antonio MorenoAntonio "Tony" Moreno was a notable Spanish-born American actor and film director of the silent film era and through the 1950s.- Biography :...
. Her mentor Stiller, who had persuaded her to take the part, was assigned to direct. For both Garbo (who did not want to play another vamp and did not like the script any more than she did the first one) and Stiller,
The Temptress was a harrowing experience. Garbo remembered it as a picture associated with doom: on the fourth day of production, she received a telegram from Stockholm informing her of the death of her sister Alva at the age of twenty-three. MGM did not permit Garbo to return to Sweden for the funeral. Shortly thereafter, Stiller, who spoke little English, had difficulty adapting to the studio system, and did not get on with Moreno, was replaced by
Fred NibloFred Niblo was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer.-Biography:He was born Frederick Liedtke in York, Nebraska, to a French mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg...
. Reshooting
The Temptress was expensive. Even though it became one of the top-grossing films of the 1926–27 season, with nearly in receipts, it was, because of its cost, the only Garbo film of the period to lose money. However, Garbo again got very good reviews, and MGM had a new star.
Garbo went on to make eight more silent films. With the exception of
Torrent, all of her silent movies were profitable and most were hugely successful. She starred in three of them with popular leading man
John GilbertJohn Gilbert was an American actor and a major star of the silent film era.Known as "the great lover," he rivaled even Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw...
. Their on-screen chemistry soon translated into an off-camera romance, and by the end of their first production,
Flesh and the DevilFlesh and the Devil is an MGM romantic drama silent film. It stars Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, and Barbara Kent, directed by Clarence Brown, and based on the play The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann....
(1927), Garbo began living with Gilbert. Despite Garbo's popularity as a silent movie star, the studio feared that her Swedish accent might impair her work in sound, and delayed the shift for as long as possible. MGM itself made a slow changeover to sound. Her last silent movie,
The Kiss-Art:* The Kiss , a 1908 sculpture by Constantin Brâncuşi* The Kiss , an 1859 painting by Francesco Hayez* The Kiss , a 1907 golden painting by Gustav Klimt...
(1929), was also the studio's.
Queen of MGM (1930–1939)
Garbo successfully made the transition to
talkiesA sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
. Publicized with the slogan "Garbo talks!",
Anna Christie (1930), a film adaptation of the
1922 playAnna Christie is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his work.-Plot summary:...
by
Eugene O'NeillEugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
, provided her first speaking role. The movie was the highest-grossing film of the year and she received her first Academy Award nomination. She won a second Academy Award nomination the same year for her performance in her next picture,
RomanceRomance is a 1930 film which tells the story of a bishop sharing a cautionary tale with a young man, who is going against the wishes of his family, of the dangers of falling in love with "fallen women", by using a story of naivete from his past...
(1930). A German version of
Anna ChristieAnna Christie is a 1930 German-language film adapted from the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title and filmed following the release of the English version released earlier the same year. Both versions feature leading actress Greta Garbo....
was also made in 1930. In 1931, she played
the World War I spyMata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "M'greet" Zelle , a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.-Early life:Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland,...
in
Mata Hari opposite screen idol
Ramón NovarroRamón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
and was subsequently part of an all-star cast in
Grand HotelGrand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum...
(1932), in which she played a Russian ballerina. Both of these films were blockbuster hits and the phenomenon of "Garbomania" reached its zenith. Although her domestic popularity was undiminished through the mid-1930s, most of her subsequent films made more money internationally.
After a contract dispute with MGM, she signed a new contract with the studio in July 1932 which gave her more control over her films and co-stars. Garbo demonstrated great loyalty to John Gilbert, whose career was fading, and, despite Mayer's objection, insisted that he co-star in 1933's
Queen ChristinaQueen Christina is a Pre-Code Hollywood feature film loosely based on the life of 17th century Queen Christina of Sweden, produced in 1933, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith and Lewis Stone. It was billed as Garbo's return to cinema...
in which she played one of her most celebrated roles. (
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
had originally been chosen to play opposite her.) In 1935,
David O. SelznickDavid O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
wanted to cast her as the dying heiress in
Dark VictoryDark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
, but Garbo chose
Tolstoy'sLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
Anna KareninaAnna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
(1935), in which she played another of her most renowned roles. Her subsequent role as the doomed courtesan opposite
Robert TaylorRobert Taylor, Rob or Bob Taylor may refer to:*Robert Taylor , British general of the late eighteenth century*Robert Taylor , American computer scientist...
in
George CukorGeorge Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's
Camille (1936) earned her a third Academy Award nomination, and many film critics regard it as her finest performance.
After the disappointing
Conquest (1937), Garbo was one of several major stars—including Crawford, Davis, Dietrich, and Katharine Hepburn—called "box office poison" in an open letter published by the National Theater Distributors of America. She then made a comeback in her first comedy playing opposite
Melvyn DouglasMelvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud...
in
Ernst LubitschErnst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
's
NinotchkaNinotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
(1939).
Ninotchka succeeded in lightening her somber and melancholy image, and she earned a fourth Academy Award nomination. The film was marketed with the tagline "Garbo laughs!", playing off the tagline for
Anna Christie.
Last work (1940–1948)
With her last film,
George CukorGeorge Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's
Two-Faced Woman (1941), MGM attempted to capitalize on Garbo's success as a comedienne by casting her in a romantic comedy which sought to portray her as an ordinary girl. She played a double role that featured her dancing the rumba, swimming, and skiing. The film was a critical, although not entirely a commercial, failure. Garbo referred to the film as "my grave". She was offered many roles in the coming years and showed interest in several, but in each case, she either turned down the part or the project did not come to fruition.
In 1948, Garbo signed a contract for $200,000 with producer
Walter WangerWalter Wanger was an American film producer. An intellectual and a socially conscious movie executive who produced provocative message movies and glittering romantic melodramas, Wanger's career began at Paramount Pictures in the 1920s and led him to work at virtually every major studio as either a...
, who had produced
Queen Christina in 1933, to shoot a picture based on
BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
's
La Duchesse de Langeais.
Max OphülsMaximillian Oppenheimer — known as Max Ophüls — was an influential German-born film director who worked in Germany , France , the United States , and France again...
was slated to adapt and direct. Garbo made several
screen testA screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
s, learned the script, and arrived in Rome in the summer of 1949 to shoot the picture. However, the financing failed to materialize and the project was abandoned. The screen tests—the last time Garbo stepped in front of a movie camera—were thought to have been lost for 40 years before resurfacing in someone's garage. Parts of the screen tests were included in the 2005
TCMTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
documentary
Garbo and show her still radiant at age 43.
In retirement
In general, Garbo in retirement led a private life of simplicity and leisure, assiduously trying to avoid the publicity she loathed. Contrary to myth, she was never a recluse either during her Hollywood years or in retirement—which is not to say she didn't spend a lot of time alone. She has been forever linked to one of her lines in
Grand Hotel: "I want to be alone." But she later remarked, "I never said, 'I want to be alone. I only said, I want to be
left alone. There is all the difference'". In retirement she had many friends (in the United States and Europe) with whom she spent time and traveled. Occasionally, she jet-setted with well-known and wealthy personalities.
Beginning in the 1940s, She became something of an art collector. Many of the paintings she purchased were of negligible value, but she did buy, for example, two impressionist paintings by Renoir and a still-life by Pierre Bonnard.
Still, she often floundered about what to do and how to spend her time, always struggling with her life-long melancholy, or depression, and anxiety, and her many eccentricities.
On 9 February 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1953, she bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City,
where she lived for the rest of her life.
In 1969, Italian motion picture director
Luchino ViscontiLuchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
attempted to bring Garbo back to the screen. He had actively been working on a film adaptation of
ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
's colossal work
Remembrance of Things PastIn Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
since 1969 with a prospective cast including
Silvana ManganoSilvana Mangano was an Italian actress.Raised in poverty during World War II, Mangano trained as a dancer and worked as a model before winning a "Miss Rome" beauty pageant in 1946...
,
Alain DelonAlain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
,
Helmut BergerHelmut Berger is an Austrian-born German film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award.He appears primarily in European cinema, but...
,
Charlotte RamplingCharlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
,
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
and Garbo in the small part of Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples. Reportedly, Garbo went to Rome and did a color screen test for the role in 1971. Visconti exclaimed: "I am very pleased at the idea that this woman, with her severe and authoritarian presence, should figure in the decadent and rarefied climate of the world described by Proust." Visconti's dream of making his Proust film came closest to realization in 1971, but with its length of almost four hours, the budget turned out to be astronomical, and the project didn't materialize.
Throughout her life, Garbo was known for taking long, daily walks with companions or by herself. She walked the streets of New York City dressed casually and wearing large sunglasses. "Garbo-watching" became a sport for photographers, the media, admirers, and fans who were obsessed with her, but she maintained her elusive mystique to the end.
Personal life
From the early days of her career, Garbo avoided the social functions in Hollywood, preferring to spend her time alone or with a few friends. She seldom signed autographs, answered no fan mail, and gave few interviews. Her refusal to give interviews gave rise to the press reporter expression "pulling a Garbo" or "going Garbo", referring to any such actions. In her 1928
PhotoplayPhotoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded a similar magazine entitled Motion Picture Story...
interview she said:
I have always been moody. When I was just a little child, as early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don't like many people. I used to crawl into a corner and sit and think, think things over.
She is closely associated with a line from
Grand Hotel, one which the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
in 2005 voted the 30th most memorable movie quote of all time, "I want to be alone, I just want to be alone", a theme echoed in several of her other roles. For example, in
LoveLove is a film directed by Edmund Goulding and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM made the film in order to capitalize on its winning romantic team of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert who had starred in the 1926 blockbuster, Flesh and the Devil....
(1927) a title card reads, "I like to be alone"; in
The Single StandardThe Single Standard is a 1929 romantic drama film directed by John S. Robertson and starring Greta Garbo, Nils Asther, and Johnny Mack Brown....
(1929) her character says, "I am walking alone because I
want to be alone"; in
Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)Susan Lenox is a 1931 film starring Greta Garbo and Clark Gable in their only movie together. The movie was made by MGM and was directed and produced by Robert Z. Leonard from a screenplay by Leon Gordon, Zelda Sears and Edith Fitzgerald adapted by Wanda Tuchock from the novel by David Graham...
(1931) she says to a suitor, "This time I rise... and fall... alone"; in
InspirationInspiration is a 1931 English language film adapted from the Alphonse Daudet short novel Sappho . It was adapted by Gene Markey, directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Irving Thalberg. The cinematography was by William H...
(1931) she tells a fickle lover, "I just want to be alone for a little while"; in
Mata Hari (1931) she says to her new amour, "I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be... quite alone"; and in
Ninotchka (1939) emissaries from Russia ask her, "Do you want to be alone comrade"? "No", she bluntly answers. By the early 1930s, the phrase had become indelibly linked with Garbo's persona,
if not her actual life.
In a surprise interview granted to the press on board the liner
KungsholmMS Kungsholm was a passenger liner owned and operated by the Swedish American Line from 1928 to 1941 on transatlantic services from Gothenburg to New York as well as cruising out of New York. It was built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany...
in October 1938 in New York City, she was asked if she had enjoyed her vacation with conductor
Leopold StokowskiLeopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
). Sighing huskily, Garbo replied, "You cannot have a vacation without peace and you cannot have peace unless left alone."
Garbo never married, had no children, and lived alone.
Her most famous romance was with her frequent co-star, John Gilbert, with whom she lived in 1926 and 1927. MGM capitalized on her relationship with Gilbert after their huge hit,
Flesh and the Devil, by costarring them again in two more hits,
Love (1927) and
A Woman of AffairsA Woman of Affairs is a 1928 drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Lewis Stone...
(1928). Gilbert allegedly proposed to her numerous times. Legend has it that when a double marriage was arranged in 1926 (with
Eleanor BoardmanEleanor Boardman was an American film actress, popular during the era of silent movies.-Early life and career:...
and
King VidorKing Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
), Garbo failed to appear at the ceremony. Garbo's recent biographers, however, have questioned the veracity of this story.
Cecil BeatonSir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
wrote in his memoirs about his affair with Garbo between 1946 and 1948. In his diary,
Erich Maria RemarqueErich Maria Remarque was a German author, best known for his novel All Quiet on the Western Front.-Life and work:...
discusses a liaison with her in 1941. In 1937, she met conductor Leopold Stokowski with whom she had a highly publicized friendship or romance while travelling throughout Europe in 1938. It was thought that she had a tryst with
Rouben MamoulianRouben Mamoulian was an Armenian-American film and theatre director.-Biography:Born in Tbilisi, Georgia to an Armenian family, Rouben relocated to England and started directing plays in London in 1922...
, her director in
Queen Christina (1933), and an affair with
George BrentGeorge Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
, her co-star in
The Painted Veil (1934). In 1940, Garbo met the Russian-born millionaire George Schlee who was married to fashion designer
ValentinaValentina Nicholaevna Sanina Schlee , known professionally simply as Valentina, was a Russian émigrée fashion designer and theatrical costume designer active from 1928 to the late 1950s....
. Schlee, who split his time between the two, became Garbo's close companion and advisor until his death in 1964.
Recent biographers and others speculate that she was bisexual, or lesbian, and that she had intimate relationships with women as well as with men. Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actress
Lilyan TashmanLilyan Tashman was a Brooklyn-born Jewish American vaudeville, Broadway, and film actress. Tashman was best known for her supporting roles as tongue-in-cheek villainesses and the bitchy 'other woman'...
in 1927 and allegedly had an affair with her; silent film star
Louise BrooksMary Louise Brooks , generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer, model, showgirl and silent film actress, noted for popularizing the bobbed haircut. Brooks is best known for her three feature roles including two G. W...
stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year. In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and socialite
Mercedes de AcostaMercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, and socialite, best known for her numerous lesbian affairs with Hollywood personalities including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Katharine Cornell, Ona Munson, Adele Astaire and, allegedly,...
, introduced to her by the author
Salka ViertelSalka Viertel was an actress and screenwriter. The pianist and composer Eduard Steuermann was her brother. Mrs. Viertel was born Salomea Steuermann in Sambor, a city then in the province of Galicia, which was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but today is in western Ukraine.-Career:She...
, and the pair allegedly began a sporadic and volatile romance. They remained friends—with ups and downs—for almost thirty years. When de Acosta published her controversial 1960 memoir,
Here Lies the Heart, they became permanently estranged. In 2005, Swedish actress Mimi Pollak, a close friend in drama school, released the letters Garbo had written her during their sixty year correspondence. Several letters suggest she may have been in love with Pollak throughout her life. After learning of Pollak's pregnancy in 1930, for example, Garbo wrote, "We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together." In 1975, she sent a poem to Pollak about "not being able to touch the hand of [her] beloved friend with whom [she] might have been walking through life".
Death
Greta Garbo died on 15 April 1990, aged 84, in New York Hospital as a result of pneumonia and renal failure.
She had been successfully treated for breast cancer in 1984.
Garbo was cremated, and after a long legal battle, her ashes were finally interred in 1999 at
SkogskyrkogårdenSkogskyrkogården is a cemetery located in the Enskededalen district south of central Stockholm, Sweden...
Cemetery just south of her native Stockholm.
She had invested wisely, primarily in stocks and bonds, and left her entire estate, $32,042,429, to her niece, Gray Reisfield.
Honors, awards, and nominations
Garbo was nominated four times for an
Academy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, including twice in 1930, for
Anna Christie and
Romance.
She lost out to
Irving ThalbergIrving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
's wife,
Norma ShearerEdith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
, who won for
The DivorceeThe Divorcee is a 1930 American drama film written by Nick Grindé, John Meehan and Zelda Sears, based on the novel Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director...
. In 1937, Garbo was nominated for
Camille, but
Luise RainerLuise Rainer is a former German film actress. Known as The "Viennese Teardrop", she was the first woman to win two Academy Awards, and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by MGM talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian...
won for
The Good EarthThe Good Earth is a film about Chinese farmers who struggle to survive. It was adapted by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West from the play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis, which was in itself based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S...
. Finally, in 1939, Garbo was nominated for
Ninotchka, but again came away empty-handed.
Gone With the WindGone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
swept the major awards, including Best Actress, which went to
Vivien LeighVivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
. She was awarded an
Academy Honorary AwardThe Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
"for her unforgettable screen performances" in 1954.
She did not show up at the ceremony, and the statuette was mailed to her home address.
She twice received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for
Anna Karenina, 1935, and
Camille, 1936.
She won the National Board of Review Best Acting Award for
Camille, 1936,
Ninotchka, 1939, and
Two-Faced Woman, 1941.
The Swedish royal medal,
Litteris et ArtibusLitteris et Artibus is a Swedish royal medal established in 1853 by Charles XV of Sweden, who was then crown prince. It is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture, especially music, dramatic art and literature....
, awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture, especially music, dramatic art or literature, was presented to Garbo in January 1937.
In a 1950
Daily VarietyVariety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
opinion poll, Garbo was voted Best Actress of the Half Century,
In November 1983, Garbo was made a Commander of the Swedish
Order of the Polar StarThe Order of the Polar Star is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I of Sweden on 23 February 1748, together with the Order of the Sword and the Order of the Seraphim....
by order of
King Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of SwedenCarl XVI Gustaf is the reigning King of Sweden since 15 September 1973, succeeding his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf because his father had predeceased him...
.
In 1999, the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
ranked Garbo fifth on their list of
greatest female stars of all timePart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends of American cinema, 25 male and 25 female...
, after
Katharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
,
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
,
Audrey HepburnAudrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, and
Ingrid BergmanIngrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
.
For her contributions to cinema, she has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6901
Hollywood Boulevard-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
.
She was once designated the most beautiful woman who ever lived by the
Guinness Book of World Records.
In September 2005, the
United States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
and Swedish
PostenPosten AB is the name of the Swedish postal service. The word "posten" means "the post" or "the mail" in Swedish.Posten was established in 1636 by Axel Oxenstierna under the name Kungliga Postverket , although its origins can be traced further back, and it was operated as a government agency into...
jointly issued two
commemorative stampA commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event or person. The subject of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike definitive stamps which normally depict the subject along with the...
s bearing her image.
On 6 April 2011, the Bank of Sweden announced that Garbo's portrait will be featured on the 100
kronaThe krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
banknote, beginning in 2014–15.
Legacy
Garbo was an international superstar—some say the greatest—during the late silent era and the so-called "Golden-Age" of Hollywood and is a cinematic legend. Almost immediately, with the sudden popularity of her first pictures, she became a screen icon. For most of her career, she was the highest paid actor or actress at MGM, making her for many years its biggest star.
In her silent films, Garbo introduced an unprecedented eroticism to the screen.
She has been praised in the media and by personalities in cinema and culture:
Ephraim KatzEphraim Katz was a writer, journalist, and filmmaker who devoted his life to gathering the information in his book, The Film Encyclopedia, first published in 1979....
(
The Film Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry):
Of all the stars who have ever fired the imaginations of audiences, none has quite projected a magnetism and a mystique equal to Garbo's. "The Divine", the "dream princess of eternity", the "Sarah Bernhardt of films", are only a few of the superlatives writers used in describing her over the years. … She played heroines that were at once sensual and pure, superficial and profound, suffering and hopeful, world-weary and life-inspiring".
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
:
Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyse this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera.
George CukorGeorge Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
:
She had a talent that few actresses or actors possess. In close-ups she gave the impression, the illusion of great movement. She would move her head just a little bit and the whole screen would come alive, like a strong breeze that made itself felt.
Robert E. SherwoodRobert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
(1929):
She is one of the most amazing, puzzling, most provocative characters of this extraordinary age. She definitely doesn't belong in the 20th century. She doesn't even belong in this world.
James CardJames Card was a film preservationist who established the motion picture collection at George Eastman House, one of the major moving image archives in the United States....
:
[O]n screen, she's the greatest who ever was, or ever will be.
Kenneth TynanKenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
:
What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober.
Garbo is the subject of four documentary features, including:
- The Divine Garbo (1990), TNT, produced by Ellen M. Krass and Susan F. Walker, narrated by Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
- Greta Garbo: The Mysterious Lady (1998), Biography Channel, narrated by Peter Graves
Peter Graves may refer to:* Peter Graves , American actor* Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves , English actor and peer* Peter Graves , English cricketer...
- Greta Garbo: A Lone Star (2001), AMC
AMC may refer to:* AMC , a short-lived British steam car manufactured in London in 1910*AMC Networks, an American media company** AMC , originally American Movie Classics, a cable television channel owned by AMC Networks...
- Garbo (2005), TCM
Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
, directed by silent film expert Kevin BrownlowKevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
and narrated by Julie ChristieJulie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
During Garbo's Hollywood career, the animated cartoons frequently caricatured her. These include, from Warner Brothers:
- I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933)
- Porky's Road Race (1937)
- Speaking of the Weather (1937)
- Have You Got Any Castles?
Have You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters on June 25, 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone...
(1938)
- Porky's Five and Ten (1938)
- Malibu Beach Party (1940)
- Hollywood Steps Out
Hollywood Steps Out is a 1941 short Merrie Melodies cartoon by Warner Brothers, directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon features caricatures of Hollywood celebrities from the 1930s and early 1940s.- Plot :...
(1941).
Among the Disney cartoons that caricatured her are:
- Mickey's Gala Premiere
Mickey's Gala Premier is a Walt Disney cartoon produced in 1933, directed by Burt Gillett. It features several famous Hollywood film actors from the 1930s.Some sources claim this cartoon is called "Mickey's Gala Premiere"...
(1933)
- Mickey's Polo Team
Mickey's Polo Team is a short animated film, directed by David Hand and first released on January 4, 1936. The short featured a game of polo between four of Disney's animated characters and four animated caricatures of noted film actors...
(1936)
- Mother Goose Goes Hollywood
Mother Goose Goes Hollywood is an 1938 Walt Disney animated short featuring parodies of Mother Goose nursery rhymes and caricatures of Hollywood celebrities from the 1930s. It is the 73rd of the series....
(1938)
- The Autograph Hound
The Autograph Hound is a 1939 American Donald Duck cartoon which features Donald Duck as an autograph hunter in Hollywood. Many celebrities from the 1930s are featured. This is the first cartoon where Donald Duck is featured in his blue sailor hat....
(1939).
In the 1984 film
Garbo TalksGarbo Talks is a 1984 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Anne Bancroft, Ron Silver, Carrie Fisher, and Betty Comden as Greta Garbo.The movie was written by Larry Grusin and also stars Catherine Hicks and Steven Hill...
, directed by
Sidney LumetSidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
, a man attempts to fulfill his dying mother's request by arranging for her to meet the Great Garbo, reflecting the still strong popular obsession with the star.
Filmography
Film credits
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Director |
Co-star |
Notes |
| 1920 |
Mr and Mrs Stockholm Go Shopping |
Elder sister |
|
|
Garbo's segment is often known as How Not to Dress. |
| 1921 |
|
Maidservant |
|
|
Uncredited
The film is lost |
| 1921 |
Our Daily Bread |
Companion |
|
|
|
| 1922 |
Peter the Tramp |
Greta |
|
|
|
| 1924 |
|
Elizabeth Dohna |
|
|
|
| 1925 |
|
Greta Rumfort |
|
|
|
| 1926 |
TorrentTorrent is an American silent romantic drama film directed by Monta Bell , based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and released on February 21, 1926.Torrent was the first American film starring Swedish actress Greta Garbo...
|
Leonora Moreno
aka La Brunna |
|
|
First American movie; all of Garbo's American movies were produced by MGM. |
| 1926 |
|
Elena |
|
|
Mauritz Stiller (Garbo's Swedish mentor) was originally assigned to direct; his directing methods and personality led to conflicts with MGM producer Irving ThalbergIrving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
who fired him. |
| 1926 |
Flesh and the DevilFlesh and the Devil is an MGM romantic drama silent film. It stars Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lars Hanson, and Barbara Kent, directed by Clarence Brown, and based on the play The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann....
|
Felicitas |
|
|
First of seven Garbo movies directed by Clarence Brown and first of four with co-star John Gilbert |
| 1927 |
Love Love is a film directed by Edmund Goulding and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM made the film in order to capitalize on its winning romantic team of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert who had starred in the 1926 blockbuster, Flesh and the Devil....
|
Anna Karenina |
|
|
Adapted from the novel Anna Karenina Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
by TolstoyTolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
|
| 1928 |
|
Marianne |
|
|
Only a 9 minute reel exists. |
| 1928 |
|
Tania Fedorova |
|
|
|
| 1928 |
|
Diana Merrick Furness |
|
|
The first of seven Garbo films with actor Lewis StoneLewis Shepard Stone was an American actor.Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, son of Bertrand Stone and Philena Heald Ball. Stone's hair grew gray by the time he was twenty. He fought in the Spanish-American War, then returned to a career as a writer. He soon began acting...
who, with the exception of Wild Orchids, played secondary roles. |
| 1929 |
Wild Orchids Wild Orchids is a 1929 drama film directed by Sidney Franklin and starring Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone and Nils Asther. Only these three stars received cast credit....
|
Lillie Sterling |
|
|
|
| 1929 |
|
Arden Stuart Hewlett |
|
,
|
|
| 1929 |
|
Irene Guarry |
|
|
Garbo's, and MGM's, last silent picture |
| 1930 |
Anna Christie Anna Christie is a 1930 MGM Pre-Code drama film adaptation of the 1922 play by Eugene O'Neill. It was adapted by Frances Marion, produced and directed by Clarence Brown with Paul Bern and Irving Thalberg as co-producers. The cinematography was by William H...
|
Anna Christie |
|
,
|
Garbo's first talkie and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress |
| 1930 |
Romance Romance is a 1930 film which tells the story of a bishop sharing a cautionary tale with a young man, who is going against the wishes of his family, of the dangers of falling in love with "fallen women", by using a story of naivete from his past...
|
Madame Rita Cavallini |
|
|
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress |
| 1930 |
Anna Christie Anna Christie is a 1930 German-language film adapted from the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title and filmed following the release of the English version released earlier the same year. Both versions feature leading actress Greta Garbo....
|
Anna Christie |
|
,
|
MGM's German version of Anna Christie was also released in 1930; Salka Viertel, Garbo's close friend, later co-wrote several of her screenplays. |
| 1931 |
Inspiration Inspiration is a 1931 English language film adapted from the Alphonse Daudet short novel Sappho . It was adapted by Gene Markey, directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Irving Thalberg. The cinematography was by William H...
|
Yvonne Valbret |
|
|
|
| 1931 |
Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) Susan Lenox is a 1931 film starring Greta Garbo and Clark Gable in their only movie together. The movie was made by MGM and was directed and produced by Robert Z. Leonard from a screenplay by Leon Gordon, Zelda Sears and Edith Fitzgerald adapted by Wanda Tuchock from the novel by David Graham...
|
Susan Lenox |
|
|
|
| 1931 |
Mata Hari |
Mata HariMata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida "M'greet" Zelle , a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.-Early life:Margaretha Geertruida Zelle was born in Leeuwarden, Friesland,...
|
|
|
After the multi-star Grand Hotel, Garbo's highest grossing film |
| 1932 |
Grand HotelGrand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum...
|
Grusinskaya |
|
,
,
,
|
|
| 1932 |
As You Desire Me As You Desire Me is a 1932 film adaptation of the play by Luigi Pirandello made by MGM. It was produced and directed by George Fitzmaurice with Irving Thalberg as co-producer. The adaptation was by Gene Markey, the cinematography byWilliam H...
|
Zara aka Marie |
|
,
|
First of three movies with Douglas |
| 1933 |
Queen ChristinaQueen Christina is a Pre-Code Hollywood feature film loosely based on the life of 17th century Queen Christina of Sweden, produced in 1933, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Ian Keith and Lewis Stone. It was billed as Garbo's return to cinema...
|
Queen Christina |
|
|
|
| 1934 |
|
Katrin Koerber Fane |
|
|
|
| 1935 |
Anna Karenina Anna Karenina is a 1935 film directed by Clarence Brown. The film stars Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone and Maureen O'Sullivan. It is the most famous and critically acclaimed film adaptation of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. There are several other film adaptations of the novel.In New...
|
Anna Karenina |
|
|
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
|
| 1936 |
CamilleCamille is an American romantic drama film directed by George Cukor and produced by Irving Thalberg and Bernard H. Hyman, from a screenplay by James Hilton, Zoe Akins and Frances Marion. The picture is based on the 1852 novel and play La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils...
|
Marguerite Gautier The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
|
|
|
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
National Board of ReviewThe National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
Best Acting Award-Best American Films:#Night Must Fall#The Life of Emile Zola#Black Legion#Camille#Make Way for Tomorrow#The Good Earth#They Won't Forget#Captains Courageous#A Star Is Born#Stage Door- Top Foreign Films :#The Eternal Mask...
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress |
| 1937 |
Conquest |
Countess Marie Walewska |
|
|
|
| 1939 |
Ninotchka Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
|
Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova |
|
|
National Board of Review Best Acting Award
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress |
| 1941 |
Two-Faced Woman Two-Faced Woman is a romantic comedy made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon...
|
Karin Borg Blake |
|
|
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Best Acting Award |
External links