Greta Garbo biography

Synopsis

Profile

(born September 18, 1905, Stockholm, Sweden—died April 15, 1990, New York, New York, U.S.) one of the most glamorous and popular motion-picture stars of the 1920s and '30s who is best known for her portrayals of strong-willed heroines, most of them as compellingly enigmatic as Garbo herself.

The daughter of an itinerant labourer, Greta Gustafsson was reared in poverty in a Stockholm slum. She was working as a department-store clerk when she met film director Erik Petschler, who gave her a small part in Luffar-Petter (1922; Peter the Tramp). From 1922 to 1924 she studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and in 1924 she played a major role in Gsta Berlings Saga (“The Story of Gsta Berling”). The film's director, Mauritz Stiller, gave her the name Garbo, and in 1925 he secured her a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood.

At first, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer was skeptical of Garbo's talent, but he and all studio executives were impressed by the initial rushes of her first American film, The Torrent (1926). Garbo projected a luminous quality that was perfect for silent pictures, motivating Mayer to sign her to an exclusive contract and raise her salary even before she completed work on this film. Throughout the remainder of the decade, Garbo appeared in such popular romantic dramas as Flesh and the Devil (1927), Love (1927), A Woman of Affairs (1928), and The Kiss (1929). She often costarred with John Gilbert, with whom she was romantically involved offscreen. Garbo's success during this stage of her career was based not only on her mysterious, ethereal screen persona, but also on public interest in the Garbo-Gilbert affair.

Sound allowed for Garbo to become an even bigger star, although her popularity was always greater in Europe than in the United States. “Garbo talks!” was MGM's promotional tagline for Anna Christie (1930), Garbo's first sound film. Her first spoken words on screen—“Give me a viskey”—revealed a husky, resonant voice that added to her allure and her somewhat androgynous persona that has appealed to both genders throughout the years. It was also one of two films she made in 1930—the other being Romance—for which Garbo received an Academy Award nomination. She poignantly portrayed an aging ballerina in the all-star classic Grand Hotel (1932), the film in which she first uttered her signature line of “I want to be alone.” Her stardom was such at this point that she was billed merely as “Garbo” for the film.

Modern critics are divided as to whether Garbo's best films of the 1930s are the period vehicles