Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premiere star during Hollywood's silent and early golden eras. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, she was known for her melancholic and somber screen persona, her film portrayals of tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
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. 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 combined nomination out of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. 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".
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.
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden at 7:30 pm. She was the third, and youngest, child of Anna Lovisa (née Karlsson, 1872–1944), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920), a laborer. She had an older brother, Sven Alfred (1898–1967), and an older sister, Alva Maria (1903–1926). Garbo was nicknamed Kata, the way she mispronounced her name, for the first ten years of her life.
1925–1929: Silent film stardom
In 1925, Garbo, who was unable to speak English, was brought to Hollywood from Sweden at the request of Mayer. After a 10-day crossing on the SS Drottningholm in July, Garbo and Stiller arrived in New York where they remained for more than six months without word from MGM. They decided to travel to Los Angeles on their own but another five weeks passed without contact from the studio. On the verge of returning to Sweden, Garbo wrote her boyfriend back home, "You're quite right when you think I don't feel at home here ... Oh, you lovely little Sweden, I promise that when I return to you, my sad face will smile as never before." A Swedish friend in Los Angeles helped by contacting MGM production boss Irving Thalberg, who agreed to give Garbo a screen test. According to author Frederick Sands, "the result of the test was electrifying. Thalberg was impressed and began grooming the young actress the following day, arranging to fix her teeth, making sure she lost weight and giving her English lessons."
During her rise to stardom, film historian Mark Vieira notes, "Thalberg decreed that henceforth, Garbo would play a young, but worldly wise, woman." However, according to Thalberg's actress wife, Norma Shearer, Garbo did not necessarily agree with his ideas stating "Miss Garbo at first didn't like playing the exotic, the sophisticated, the woman of the world. She used to complain, "Mr. Thalberg, I am just a young gur-rl!" Irving tossed it off with a laugh. With those elegant pictures, he was creating the Garbo image". 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 Ibáñez, with director Monta Bell. She replaced Aileen Pringle, 10 years her senior, and played a peasant girl turned singer, opposite Ricardo Cortez. Torrent was a hit, and, despite its cool reception by the trade press, Garbo's performance was well received.
Garbo's success in her first American film led Thalberg to cast her in a similar role in The Temptress (1926), based on another Ibáñez novel. In this, her second film, she played opposite the popular star Antonio Moreno but was given top billing. 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. Stiller, who spoke little English, had difficulty adapting to the studio system and did not get on with Moreno, was fired by Thalberg and replaced by Fred Niblo. Re-shooting The Temptress was expensive, and even though it became one of the top-grossing films of the 1926–1927 season, it was the only Garbo film of the period to lose money. However, Garbo received rave reviews, and MGM had a new star.
After her lightning ascent, Garbo made eight more silent films, and all were hits. She starred in three of them with the leading man John Gilbert. About their first movie, Flesh and the Devil (1926), silent film expert Kevin Brownlow states that "she gave a more erotic performance than Hollywood had ever seen." Their on-screen chemistry soon translated into an off-camera romance, and by the end of the production, they began living together. The film also marked a turning point in Garbo's career. Vieira wrote: "Audiences were mesmerized by her beauty and titillated by her love scenes with Gilbert. She was a sensation." Profits from her third movie with Gilbert, A Woman of Affairs (1928), catapulted her to top Metro star of the 1928–1929 box office season, usurping the long-reigned silent queen Lillian Gish. In 1929, reviewer Pierre de Rohan wrote in the New York Telegraph: "She has glamour and fascination for both sexes which have never been equaled on the screen."
Garbo never married, had no children, and lived alone for most of her adult life.
Death
Garbo was successfully treated for breast cancer in 1984. Towards the end of her life, only Garbo's closest friends knew she was receiving six-hour dialysis treatments three times a week at The Rogosin Institute in New York Hospital. A photograph appeared in the media in early 1990, showing Koger assisting Garbo, who was walking with a cane, into the hospital.
Garbo died on 15 April 1990, aged 84, in the hospital, as a result of pneumonia and renal failure. Daum later claimed that towards the end, she also suffered from gastrointestinal and periodontal ailments.
Garbo was cremated and her ashes were interred nine years later in 1999 at Skogskyrkogården Cemetery just south of her native Stockholm.
Garbo made numerous investments, primarily in stocks and bonds, and left her entire estate of $32 million (equivalent to $75,000,000 in 2023) to her niece.
- SERVES
- 8
- COOK TIME
- 30 Min
German Potato Salad isn't creamy like some of the traditional American potato salads you may be used to, but that doesn't mean it isn't as delicious! Our German Potato Salad has a sweet vinegary base and includes tasty ingredients like bacon, onion and fresh parsley.
- 4 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
- 8 slices bacon
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/2 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook potatoes 10 to 15 minutes, or until fork-tender. Drain, place in a large bowl, and set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until browned and crisp, turning as needed. Remove from pan, crumble, and set aside.
- Add oil and onion to bacon grease and cook 4 to 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Stir in vinegar, water, sugar and salt; bring to a boil. Gently stir in potatoes and parsley.
- Add half of bacon to potato mixture and heat until warmed through, stirring occasionally. Remove to a serving dish, sprinkle remaining bacon over top, and serve warm.
