Greta

"Greta Garbo" was born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905. I was born in Stockholm to poor parents. I went to work at age 14, first as a lather girl in a barbershop, then as a clerk in a department store and as a model.In my first motion picture, Luffar-Petter (1922), I played a bathing beauty. From 1922 to 1924 I studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm. During that period met Mauritz Stiller, the foremost Swedish director, who gave me an important role in Gösta Berlings Saga (1924; "The Story of Gösta Berling"), gave me the stage name Greta Garbo, and trained me in cinema-acting techniques.In 1925, when Stiller went to the United States to work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he insisted that I be given a contract also. In all, I appeared in 27 films (two in Sweden, one in Germany, and the remainder in Hollywood); the most important of my silent films were The Torrent (1926), Flesh and the Devil (1927) and Love (1927), both with the popular leading man John Gilbert, whose name was linked with mine in a much-publicized romance. Anna Christie (1930) was the talking picture in which my rich, low voice was first heard. It was a great success, although I despised my performance. It earned me the first of my four Academy Award nominations for best actress. That same year, I earned another Academy Award nomination for my role in, "Romance." I was my most seductive playing the WWI spy in Mata Hari (1932). So much so that the censors complained of the revealing outfit shown on the movie poster. My next film that year was Grand Hotel, with one of the first all star casts. The film earned MGM it’s second Best Picture Oscar. After almost 2 years off the screen, I signed a new MGM contract granting me almost total control over my films. I exercised that control by getting leading man Laurence Olivier fired from my film, Queen Christina (1934), and forcing Mayer to replace him with former co-star and lover John Gilbert, who’s career had faltered since the coming of sound. In 1935, David O. Selznick wanted me cast as the dying heiress in Dark Victory, but I insisted on a screen version of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, Anna Karenina. I had already starred in a silent version, Love (1927), with John Gilbert. Many have called my performance as the doomed coutesan in, "Camille "(1937) the finest ever recorded on film. Some fans even claimed that during my climatic death scene they saw my soul leave my body. Not surprisingly, this role earned me a third Academy Award nomination Director Ernst Lubitsch’s finest work of the 1930s was the classic, "Ninotchka" (1939). It starred me—in a comedy! "Garbo Laughs" said the advertisements. And I did, charmingly. Ninotchka earned me the last of my four Academy Award nominations. At age 36, after the flop of my film, Two Faced Woman (1941), I reclusively withdrew from the entertainment field and retired to a secluded life in New York City. In 1954 I was awarded a special Academy Award for unforgettable performances.My physical prescence left this world on April 15, 1990, in New York, N.Y. I feel I was one of the most glamorous and popular stars of the motion pictures of the 1920s and '30s.Gladly I had, in the opinion of my directors and most critics, a perfect instinct for doing the right thing before the camera. Mu humble talent, my great beauty, and my indifference to public opinion made my career unique in the history of the cinema