Greta Garbo

Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gösta Berling. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She stirred interest with her first American silent film, Torrent (1926). Garbo's performance in Flesh and the Devil (1926), her third movie, made her an international star.^[2] In 1928, Garbo starred in A Woman of Affairs, which catapulted her to MGM's highest box-office star, surpassing the long-reigning Lillian Gish. Other well-known Garbo films from the silent era are The Mysterious Lady (1928), The Single Standard (1929), and The Kiss (1929).


With Garbo's first sound film, Anna Christie (1930), MGM marketers enticed the public with the tagline "Garbo talks!" That same year she starred in Romance and for her performances in both films she received her first two out of four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress.^[3] By 1932 her success allowed her to dictate the terms of her contracts and she became increasingly selective about her roles. She continued in films such as Mata Hari (1931), Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931), Grand Hotel (1932), Queen Christina (1933), and Anna Karenina (1935).


Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille (1936) to be her finest and the role gained her a second Academy Award nomination. However, Garbo's career soon declined and she became one of many stars labelled box office poison in 1938. Her career revived with a turn to comedy in Ninotchka (1939), which earned her a third Academy Award nomination. But after the failure of Two-Faced Woman (1941), she retired from the screen at the age of 35 after acting in 28 films. In 1954, Garbo was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances".^[4]


After retiring, Garbo declined all opportunities to return to the screen, shunned publicity, and led a private life. She became an art collector whose paintings included works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard and Kees van Dongen.^[5]

Public persona[edit]

From the early days of her career, Garbo avoided industry social functions, preferring to spend her time alone or with friends. She never signed autographs or answered fan mail, and rarely gave interviews.^[110][111] Nor did she ever appear at Oscar ceremonies, even when she was nominated.^[112] Her aversion to publicity and the press was undeniably genuine,^[113][114] and exasperating to the studio at first. In an interview in 1928, she explained that her desire for privacy began when she was a child, stating, "As early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I've always been moody. I detest crowds, I don't like many people."^[115][116] The artist James Montgomery Flagg said in 1933 ^[117] that when he was allowed to sketch Garbo at a director's party in Hollywood some years earlier she told him she suffered from melancholia. At that time she had a Swedish phonograph record of laughs of all kinds which she played when visiting, to observe her hosts' response. ^[118] In 1937, in a letter to her friend, Austrian actress and writer Salka Viertel, she wrote: "I go nowhere, see no one... It is hard and sad to be alone, but sometimes it's even more difficult to be with someone..."^[119] In another letter in 1970 she wrote: "I feel very tired and cannot seem to get myself together to plan where to go... I am sorry but something always seem to go a little wrong with me, and it is not in my head either..."^[120]


Because Garbo was suspicious and mistrustful of the media, and often at odds with MGM executives, she spurned Hollywood's publicity rules. She was routinely referred to by the press as the "Swedish Sphinx". Her reticence and fear of strangers perpetuated the mystery and mystique she projected both on screen and in real life. MGM eventually capitalized on it, for it bolstered the image of the silent and reclusive woman of mystery.^{[121][112][122]} In spite of her strenuous efforts to avoid publicity, Garbo paradoxically became one of the twentieth century's most publicized women.^[28][123] She is closely associated with a line from Grand Hotel, one which the American Film Institute in 2005 voted the 30th-most memorable movie quote of all time,^[124] "I want to be alone; I just want to be alone." The theme was a running gag in her movies that began during the silent period.^[125][c] According to a 1955 piece in LIFE magazine, Garbo explained that she'd said: "I want to be let alone", not "I want to be alone".^{[127][128][129]}


Fashion and personal style


After starring in Torrent (1926), she became known as "the Art Deco Diva".^[116] She favored men's shoes and clothes^[130] and her style has been described as "trench coat, simple shoes, shirts, cigarette pants, slouch hat and big sunglasses."^[116] Garbo has been credited with popularizing the "slouchy hat".^[131]

Awards and honors[edit]

Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1930, a performer could receive a single nomination for their work in more than one film. Garbo received her nomination for her work in both Anna Christie and for Romance.^[224][225] She lost out to Irving Thalberg's wife, Norma Shearer, who won for The Divorcee. In 1937, Garbo was nominated for Camille, but Luise Rainer won for The Good Earth. Finally, in 1939, Garbo was nominated for Ninotchka, but again came away empty-handed. Gone With the Wind swept the major awards, including Best Actress, which went to Vivien Leigh.^[226][227] In 1954, however, she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances".^[4] Predictably, Garbo did not show up at the ceremony, and the statuette was mailed to her home address.^[226]


Garbo twice received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress: for Anna Karenina in 1935, and for Camille in 1936. She won the National Board of Review Best Acting Award for Camille in 1936; for Ninotchka in 1939; and for Two-Faced Woman in 1941. The Swedish royal medal Litteris et Artibus, which is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture (especially music, dramatic art, or literature) was presented to Garbo in January 1937.^[228] In a 1950 Daily Variety opinion poll, Garbo was voted "Best Actress of the Half Century",^[229] In 1957, she was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.^[230]


In November 1983, she was made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star by order of King Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden.^[231] In 1985, she was awarded the Illis quorum by the government of Sweden.^[232] In 1985, a star was nicknamed after her.^[233] For her contributions to cinema, in 1960, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard.^[234]


Garbo appears on a number of postage stamps, and in September 2005, the United States Postal Service and Swedish Posten jointly issued two commemorative stamps bearing her image.^{[235][236][237]} On 6 April 2011, Sveriges Riksbank announced that Garbo's portrait was to be featured on the 100-krona banknote, beginning in 2014–2015.^[238]