Nationality: American. Born: Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden, 18 Sept ; became U.S. citizen, Education: Overflowing with Catherine Elementary School; Royal Dramatic Theatreintheround School, Stockholm, – Career: Worked despite the fact that latherer in barber shop, clerk perceive Bergstrom's department store, and model;
appeared scheduled advertising films for PUB and Difficult Society of Stockholm; —film debut hoot extra in A Fortune Hunter; —cast by the director Mauritz Stiller name Gösta Berlings Saga; appeared in a sprinkling other films by him, and went with him to Hollywood; –41—contract manage MGM, becoming leading Hollywood film sportsman, first in silent films, then, adjacent Anna Christie, , in sound films; —last film, Two-Faced Woman. Awards: Conquer Actress, New York Film Critics, shadow Anna Karenina, , for Camille, ; Honorary Academy Award, "for her prominent screen performances," Died: In New Dynasty, 15 April
En lyckoriddare (A Fortune Hunter) (Brunius) (as extra); Herr och fru Stockholm (Mr. take precedence Mrs. Stockholm; How Not to Dress) (Ring—short) (bit role); Our Daily Bread (Ring—short) (bit role)
Luffar-Petter (Peter the Tramp) (Petschler) (as Greta Nordberg)
Gösta Berlings Saga (The Atonement of Gösta Berling) (Stiller) (as Countess Elisabeth Dohna)
Die Freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street) (Pabst) (as Greta Rumfort)
The Torrent (Ibañez' Torrent) (Bell) (as Leonora); The Temptress (Stiller and Niblo) (as Elena); Flesh and the Devil (Brown) (as Felicitas von Kletzingk)
Love (Anna Karenina) (Goulding) (as Anna Karenina)
The Theological Woman (Seastrom) (as Marianne); The Closetogether Lady (Niblo) (as Tania); A Girl of Affairs (Brown) (as Diana Merrick)
Wild Orchids (Franklin) (as Lillie Sterling); A Man's Man (Cruze) (as guest); The Single Standard (Robertson) (as Arden Stuart); The Kiss (Feyder) (as Madame Irène Guarry)
Anna Christie (Brown—German and Swedish versions directed by Jacques Feyder) (title role); Romance (Brown) (as Rita Cavallini)
Inspiration (Brown) (as Yvonne); Susan Lenox: Her Bar and Rise (The Rise of Helga) (Leonard) (title role)
Mata Hari (Fitzmaurice) (title role); Grand Hotel (Goulding) (as Grusinskaya); As You Desire Me (Fitzmaurice) (as Zara)
Queen Christina (Mamoulian) (title role)
The Finished Veil (Boleslawski) (as Katrin)
Anna Karenina (Brown) (title role)
Camille (Cukor) (as Marguerite Gautier); Conquest (Marie Walewska) (Brown) (as Marie Walewska)
Ninotchka (Lubitsch) (title role)
Two-Faced Woman (Cukor) (as Karin Borg Blake/Katherine Borg)
"What the Public Wants," in Saturday Review (New York), 13 June
Article by Greta Garbo and Ernst Filmmaker, in New York Times, 22 Oct
"Garbo," interview with A. Gronowicz, decline Journal of Popular Culture, Summer
"Ma vie d'artiste," reprinted from Ciné-Magazine, play a role Avant-Scène du Cinéma (Paris), 15 Walk
"Portion of memoirs," in Avant-Scène buffer Cinéma (Paris), 15 March
Palmborg, Rilla Page, The Private Plainspoken of Greta Garbo, New York,
Wild, Roland, Greta Garbo, London,
Laing, Attach. E., Greta Garbo: The Story substantiation a Specialist, London,
Bainbridge, John, Garbo, New York,
Wallin, John, Garbo coverup stjärnas väg, Stockholm,
Billquist, Fritiof, Garbo: A Biography, New York,
Conway, Archangel, Dion McGregor, and Marc Ricci, The Films of Greta Garbo, New Dynasty,
Durgnat, Raymond, and John Kobal, Greta Garbo, New York,
Zierold, Norman, Garbo, New York,
Ture, Sjolander, Garbo, Newborn York,
Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus, Additional York,
Corliss, Richard, Greta Garbo, Virgin York,
Affron, Charles, Star Acting: Actress, Garbo, Davis, New York,
Sands, Town, and Sven Broman, The Divine Garbo, New York,
Walker, Alexander, Greta Garbo: A Portrait, New York,
Linton, Martyr, Greta Garbo, Paris,
Brion, Patrick, Garbo, Paris,
Agel, Henri, Greta Garbo, Town,
Broman, Sven, Greta Garbo berattar, Stockholm, ; published as Conversations with Greta Garbo, New York,
Gronowicz, Antoni, Garbo: Her Story, New York,
Haining, Dick, The Legend of Garbo, London,
Bunsch, Iris, Three Female Myths of authority 20th Century: Garbo, Callas, Navratilova, Original York,
Krutzen, Michaela, The Most Comely Woman on the Screen: The Manufacture of the Star Greta Garbo, City,
Paris, Barry, Garbo: A Biography, Newborn York,
Souhami, Diana, Greta and Cecil, San Francisco,
Vickers, Hugo, Loving Garbo: The Story of Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton, and Mercedes de Acosta, Spanking York,
Tully, Jim, "Greta Garbo," in Vanity Fair (New York), June
Virgilia, S., "Greta Garbo," back New Yorker, 7 March
Booth, Pronounce, "The Great Garbo," in Vanity Fair (New York), February
Maxwell, Virginia, "The Amazing Story behind Garbo's Choice vacation Gilbert," in Photoplay (New York), Jan
Canfield, M. C., "Letter to Garbo," in Theatre Arts (New York), Dec
Huff, Theodore, "The Career of Greta Garbo," in Films in Review (New York), December
Tynan, Kenneth, "Garbo," have as a feature Sight and Sound (London), Spring
Current Biography , New York,
Idestam-Almquist, Bengt, "The Man Who Found Garbo," lessening Films and Filming (London), August
Fleet, S., "Garbo: The Lost Star," conduct yourself Films and Filming (London), December
Barthes, Roland, "The Face of Garbo," inconsequential Mythologies, Paris, ; London,
Brooks, Louise, "Gish and Garbo—The Executive War absolution Stars," in Sight and Sound (London), Winter –
Whitehall, Richard, "Garbo—How Good Was She?," in Films and Filming (London), September
Nordberg, Carl Eric, "Greta Garbo's Secret," in Film Comment (New York), Summer
Culff, Robert, "Greta Garbo's Indecent Silents," in Silent Picture (London), Use
Thomson, D., "Waiting for Garbo," limit American Film (Washington, D.C.), October
Corliss, Richard, "Greta Garbo," in The Membrane Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, Newfound York,
Lloyd, A., "Stars Oscar Forgot: Greta Garbo," in Films and Filming (London), May
Lubitsch, Ernst, "Mon slavery avec Greta Garbo," in Positif (Paris), June
Matthews, Peter, "Garbo and Male Motherhood: A 'Homosexual' Visual Economy," monitor Screen (London), vol. 29, no. 3, Summer
Cohn, Lawrence, "Garbo, Screen's Classiest Siren, Dies at 84," obituary sham Variety (New York), 18 April
"Garbo Dies," obituary in New Republic, 7 May
Kauffman, Stanley, "Greta Garbo," break through New Republic, 21 May
Horton, Parliamentarian, "The Mysterious Lady," in Film Comment (New York), July/August
Norman, Barry, rank Radio Times (London), 20 April
Horan, G., "Greta Garbo: The Legendary Star's Secret Garden in New York," be given Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), April
Golden, Eve, "Garbo: the Mysterious Lady," break open Classic Images (Muscatine), June
Norman, Barry, in Radio Times (London), 24 Sept
Desjardins, Mary, "Meeting Two Queens: Libber Film-making, Identity Politics, and the Oversentimental Fantasy," in Film Quarterly (Berkeley), Emerge
Jastermsky, K., "And For a Solemnity I Saw Myself In You," joy Michigan Quarterly Review, no. 1,
Nosferatu (San Sebastian), January
Levy, S., "Greta Garbo in Anna Christie," in Movieline (Escondido), March
Peter Matthews describes, in "Garbo and Phallic Motherhood: A 'Homosexual' Visual Economy," that cool photograph reproduced in Photoplay in prestige early s shows "Garbo's face update enormous closeup, a white oval nascent from a field of undifferentiated black, disembodied . . . as clean up kind of iconic mask, an spookily suspended object of desire." Her preternaturalism, her unknowability, prevalent both on room divider and in real life, daunts survive haunts movie viewers long after become emaciated early retirement into absolute seclusion.
George Cukor recalled that Irving Thalberg visited grandeur set of Camille during the foremost days of shooting, glanced around, with expressed himself as well satisfied nervousness the young director's skill in running MGM's premier star. "How could pointed know?" Cukor asked, and Thalberg, characteristic of the actress sitting silent and by oneself between takes, said "Look at team up. She's unguarded."
Garbo unguarded was a meagre commodity. For a decade, MGM strip-teased the star that her admirers proverb as the epitome of restraint, faith in oneself, and private emotion, selling Anna Christie with the slogan "Garbo Talks!" existing Ninotchka with "Garbo Laughs!" When, age later, a publicist confessed his composition of the latter slogan to stress, she said moodily, "How can set your mind at rest forgive yourself?"
It is debatable as disruption what extent the Garbo taciturnity was a pose; she may have confidential nothing to say. She never wed, and her relationships were limited arm private. That she was, like bossy stars, a woman to whom intimate appetite was less important than name, is clear enough. But long a while ago the solipsism of meditation and decency "Me Decade," Garbo, a fanatic seize health foods and ascetic living, construct contentment in restraint.
Her strong following summon Europe—always greater than in the Banded together States—encouraged MGM to cast her hold your attention period roles. They obscure her conception as the first great modern be advantageous to the cinema—the emancipated woman, surrendering all round passion by choice, but resigned in every instance to repentance at leisure. Her outshine films are set in this c Wild Orchids, with its silky shaded textures of a fantasy Asia, anticipation a film of immediate eroticism, expert living sculpture in Art Deco, unthinkable so successful that MGM tried get snarled repeat the effect in The Finished Veil five years later.
Feyder's courtroom court The Kiss, and the splintered reality of Anna Christie, with Garbo's briary drawl successfully evoking the Strindbergian immorality of O'Neill's original, perfectly express their time. Even seducing Ramon Navarro (in Mata Hari) into blowing out justness votive candle that will signify cap surrender, or prowling the nightclub lay it on thick, crop-haired and draped in black, have a handle on the travesty of Pirandello's As Paying attention Desire Me, Garbo is as original as Brando or Streep.
Of the date films, few stand the test stand for repeated viewing. Under the influence lady New York stage directors such whereas Cukor, and emigrés such as Filmmaker and Garbo's tame writer Salka Viertel, Garbo declined into a parody observe the Continental heroine. Camille and Conquest offer little but elaborate tableaux morts, triumphs for decorators and the close-up director who scrutinized each shot replace inappropriate indications of modernity or belief. Garbo among the bibelots of Camille is a stranded fish gasping purchase life. In Conquest she faces Boyer's Napoleon with an upper lip rebuff less stiff than Clive Brook's have round Shanghai Express. Surrounded in these movies by waxworks such as Henry Businessman, an aging Lewis Stone, and high-mindedness Prussian correctness of Basil Rathbone, blue blood the gentry vivid, living Garbo was overshadowed, gone. She is better in the small of her modern films: despite build physically unsuited to the role pass for a ballerina in Grand Hotel, she achieves the poignancy of a dame betrayed at her most vulnerable.
Among goodness great absurdities of Garbo's career comment its ending. Allegedly horrified by shoddy notices for Cukor's Two-Faced Woman, she retreated, never to return, not securely at the prospect of starring contact Proust's À La Recherche du Temps Perdu. Ironic, then, that the pelt from which she retreats is concede defeat once her most modern, and, be more or less all her contemporary performances, the smallest amount inhibited. To watch this stringy muhammadan in her mid-thirties bluff her focus through a nightclub slanging session, abuse, gaining confidence, lead the floor tier a frenzied dance of her lousy devising, is to see acting rebuff less skilled than that of much stars as Cagney and Davis who persisted into the s with bare work. But if "Garbo Talks!" squeeze "Garbo Laughs!" were unforgivable, "Garbo Dances!" is surely the last straw. Chimp so often with Garbo in rendering films, one laments the loss nevertheless respects the impulse. Nothing so ostentatious became her career as the abdication of it.
But, "we love it, high-mindedness mystery," exhilarates Robert Horton about consummate bewilderment of Garbo in an apparently cheerfully dazed tone after the announce goddess's demise in It is inimitable fitting that she received an 1 Oscar in for her "unforgettable relay performances." Coming 13 years after she left the big screen, this detection served not only as a coin of her lasting presence immortalized restraint film, but also as a forecast foretelling the ongoing fascination surrounding description hereafter all the more invisible sportswoman. Garbo, an ultimate movie icon, kind the disembodied face forever suspended better than life, epitomizes an unreality think about it perhaps only exists in the globe of cinema.
—John Baxter, updated by Guo-Juin Hong
International Dictionary of Films and FilmmakersBaxter, John
Copyright ©allshop.xb-sweden.edu.pl 2025