Early Years
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden on September 18, 1905. She was the youngest of three children born to working-class parents who had no choice but to raise their children in one of the worst neighborhoods in Stockholm.
“It was eternally grey—those long winter’s nights. My father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room, my mother is repairing ragged old clothes, sighing. We children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air. Such evenings are unforgettable for a sensitive girl, but also for a girl like me. Where we lived, all the houses and apartments looked alike, their ugliness matched by everything surrounding us.”
– Greta Garbo
As a young child, Garbo was often a loner, however, she did like interacting with other children if it revolved around pretend play as she yearned to be an actress. Although money was scarce, Garbo would often attend theatrical performances at Moseback Theatre in her hometown.
At the age of 13, Garbo dropped out of school and went to work. She soon obtained a job at a local barbershop as a lather girl. This was followed by a job as an errand girl at the Swedish department store, PUB.
A year after leaving school, Garbo’s father became extremely ill. As a result, he was unable to work. Garbo would often accompany him to his weekly hospital visits. He died in 1920 when Garbo was just 14 years old.
“Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening.”
– Greta Garbo
Modeling and Movies
Eventually, Garbo began to get modeling work for department store catalogs. This included PUB and Nordiska Kompaniet. She was soon cast in promotional ads for these shops that ran in front of silent movies around Sweden. The first ad she appeared in premiered on December 12, 1920, in Stockholm. Around this time Garbo also began to study at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in Stockholm. Her education at this establishment would last two years.
At the time these films were being made, Garbo was on the non-slender side and often faced criticism about her weight. However, this did not stop her from being cast by director Erik Arthur Petschler in the short comedy, Peter the Tramp in 1922. Her weight did become an issue the following year when director Mauritz Stiller told her plainly:
“My dear Miss Gustafsson, you are a little too fat, I believe! You’ll have to lose twenty pounds if you’re going to play the role I contemplate for you!”
In 1924, Stiller cast Garbo in a lead role in the movie The Saga of Gosta Berling. This was an adaptation of the Nobel Prize-winning novel. Stiller would soon form a close bond with Garbo, acting as her mentor and managing her fledgling career. Around this time she changed her name from Greta Gustafsson to Greta Garbo.
Garbo’s next film appearance was in the German film The Street of Sorrow, which was released in 1925 and directed by G.W. Pabst. While this film was being made, Garbo began to generate international attention, especially in Hollywood. This was due to her star-making performance in The Saga of Gosta Berling.
“Her (Garbo’s) instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyze this woman’s acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera.”
– Bette Davis
The Move to MGM
Early in 1925, Louis B. Mayer, then the vice president and general manager of MGM, flew out to Berlin. Accounts differ as to whether he was interested primarily in Stiller or Garbo. Subsequently, as a result of the trip, he ended up signing both of them to his studio.
Garbo and Stiller arrived in New York City in June of 1925 via the transatlantic ocean liner the SS Drottningholm. Nobody from MGM bothered to show up to meet them, not even the photographer the studio sent to take pictures. Instead, that photographer outsourced the work to another photographer. Garbo and Stiller were not contacted by MGM for over six months and the pair stayed in New York waiting for any contact from the storied movie studio.
Fed up and on the verge of returning to Sweden, Garbo had an acquaintance from Sweden, who lived in Los Angeles, contact MGM directly. Afterward, MGM production boss Irving Thalberg contacted Garbo and had her and Stiller brought out to Hollywood. When Garbo arrived she was given a screen test, which impressed Thalberg greatly. He began to groom Garbo for her American film debut by making sure she lost weight, learned English, and had her teeth fixed.
Thalberg’s vision for Gretta Garbo was that she would play exotic and worldly women. Although Garbo had no say in the types of roles she played, these were not the types of roles the legendary actress wanted to play.
“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.”
– Norma Shearer
Garbo’s first movie for MGM, Torrent (1926), wasn’t originally supposed to star her, but rather Aileen Pringle, who was in her thirties. Since the role was that of a peasant girl, the studio decided to swap out Pringle for Garbo. The Swedish actress was disappointed that her debut American movie was not directed by Stiller, but Monta Bell, who had been mentored by Charlie Chaplin.
Garbo’s second film for MGM was The Temptress (1926), which Stiller was brought on to direct. Problems with the movie became quickly apparent. Firstly, Garbo didn’t want to play another vampish role similar to what she had just done in Torrent. However, she didn’t have a choice as she was under contract with the studio. Stiller couldn’t speak English with any level of proficiency and had trouble keeping the production moving. He also didn’t get along with Garbo’s co-star Antonio Moreno.
Because of these on-set problems, Thalberg unceremoniously fired Stiller and replaced him with accomplished director Fred Niblo, whose films included Blood and Sand (1922) with Rudolph Valentino and The Mark of Zorro (1920) with Douglas Fairbanks. Niblo reshot every scene in the movie that Stiller had already filmed.
“(Garbo is) The most extraordinary woman (in art) that I have encountered in my life. It was as if she had diamonds in her bones and in her interior light struggled to come out through the pores of her skin.”
– Dolores del Rio
Sexuality and The Swedish Sphinx
After The Tempest was released Garbo became an instant star. This was attributed in part to her naturalistic performance that was in contrast with the more exaggerated film acting of the time. Garbo would go on to make eight more hit movies in the silent era. These included Flesh and the Devil (1926), Love (1927), and A Woman of Affairs (1928) with John Gilbert.
Garbo and Gilbert began a romance during Flesh and the Devil that resulted in the pair of thespians living together by the end of production. Gilbert became a mentor to Garbo during this time, offering advice on how to act like a star and deal with the studio bosses. Gilbert proposed to Garbo several times and the actress agreed. However, Garbo got cold feet before the nuptials could be undertaken. By 1928, the relationship was over.
“I was in love with him (Gilbert), but I froze and was afraid he would tell me what to do and boss me. I always wanted to be the boss.”
– Greta Garbo
Actress Louise Brooks claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Garbo in 1928. There was also speculation that Garbo had a sexual relationship with actress Lilyan Tashman around this time as well. In the early thirties, it is also believed that she had a sexual relationship with writer Mercedes de Acosta. Garbo developed a close friendship with her for the next three decades.
“I introduced Marlene (Dietrich) to Garbo…Marlene was my house guest, and for some unaccountable reason had never met Garbo, and she was her hero. I arranged for Clifton Webb to give a party for Garbo so I could bring Marlene. I was living with Rita (Hayworth) at the time, and she didn’t want to go. That was very much like her. She never wanted to go anywhere, just stay home. So Marlene and I went without her. Garbo was sitting on a raised platform in the middle of the living room, so that everybody had to stand and look up at her. I introduced them. I said, “Greta, it’s unbelievable that you two have never met—Greta, Marlene. Marlene, Greta.” Marlene started to gush, which was not like her at all. Looking up at Garbo, she said, “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, it’s such a pleasure to meet you, I’m humble in your presence,” and on and on. Garbo said, “Thank you very much. Next?” And turned away to somebody else. Marlene was crushed.”
– Orson Welles
Although she was a huge star, dethroning Lilian Gish as MGM’s top female box office draw in 1928, Garbo shunned fame. She was distrustful of the MGM executives. Further, she was suspicious of the Hollywood news media. The subsequent result was Garbo did not give many interviews. As a result of this, the press dubbed her “the Swedish Sphinx.” Garbo also didn’t sign autographs or answer fan mail. Additionally, she avoided large social gatherings, opting to be alone or with a handful of friends.
“As early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don’t like many people.”
– Greta Garbo
Garbo Talks
In 1929, MGM cast Garbo in her first sound picture, Anna Christie, which premiered in New York City on February 21, 1930. The film was promoted with the catchphrase “Garbo talks!” It subsequently went on to be the highest-grossing film of 1930, earning $1,500,000 at the box office. After filming the English language version, Garbo shot the movie again with a different cast and crew (except for cinematographer William H. Daniels), this time in German. This version premiered in Cologne, Germany on December 2, 1930.
Garbo was nominated for her first Oscar for her combined performances in Anna Christie and Romance (1930). The actress would lose to Norma Shearer who had starred in The Divorcee (1930). Garbo would be nominated twice more for an Oscar (Camille and Ninotchka), losing both times. Garbo never bothered to attend any of these ceremonies.
Garbo’s next two movies, Mata Hari (1931) and Grand Hotel (1932) went on to become two of the biggest earners at the box office. For the next two consecutive years, the press dubbed her “the greatest money-making machine ever put on screen.”
Garbo used her apparent clout to propose that she play Joan of Arc in a screenplay written by Mercedes de Acosta. MGM was uninterested in the project. This was despite Garbo being the biggest star in the world. Subsequently, the film was not produced and Garbo instead made As You Desire Me (1932) with Melvyn Douglas. When that movie wrapped, Garbo’s contract expired and she went home to Sweden.
Later MGM Years
After a year in Sweden, Garbo renewed her contract with MGM and returned to Hollywood under the condition that she star in Queen Christina (1933). She also demanded a salary of $300,000 per feature. MGM wanted her co-star to be either Laurence Olivier or Charles Boyer. However, Garbo was adamant that they cast her former lover and co-star John Gilbert. His career had been in decline since the advent of sound in film. The studio agreed, and Gilbert was cast.
Although Queen Christina was a box office success both domestically and abroad it would be the last hit movie Garbo would have in the United States. Her remaining films were financially dependent on foreign box office receipts. This would also be the last movie she would appear in with Gilbert who died on January 9, 1936, from a heart attack brought on by alcoholism.
Next, MGM wanted Garbo to star in Dark Victory, which she turned down. It would be made a few years later with Bette Davis in the role. Instead, Garbo set her sights on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1935) as her next project. It was a modest hit that earned Garbo the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
Garbo’s next movie was Camille (1936). Directed by George Cukor and co-starring Robert Taylor, the production was stunned when Irving Thalberg died unexpectedly of pneumonia at 37 years of age. Garbo especially took it hard as she was good friends with both Thalberg and his wife, Norma Shearer. Garbo had frequently spent time with the couple at their home. Subsequently, Thalberg’s death covered the set with a somber atmosphere that enhanced the final scenes and the performances within.
Originally titled “Marie Waleskwa,” Garbo’s first flop came in the form of Conquest (1937). The film was a big-budget production about the love affairs between Napoleon (Charles Boyer) and Marie Walewska, his Polish mistress. With a budget of nearly $3,000,000, the movie’s box office receipts came in at just over $2,000,000. Factoring in marketing and distribution costs, the movie lost over $1,400,000.
Final Roles
After the box office failure of Conquest Garbo returned to Sweden as her contract had expired with MGM. It was a relatively short trip and soon Garbo was back in Hollywood and back at the studio she called home.
Believing that audiences had grown tired of Garbo in period dramas, MGM decided to cast her in a comedy. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Ninotchka (1939) put Garbo in the role of a Soviet agent in Paris. The film also used satire and romance to contrast the bleakness of the Soviet Union with the whimsy and freedom of Paris. Ninotchka would be Garbo’s last hit movie and her penultimate big-screen appearance.
MGM decided to put Garbo in other comedies after the success of Ninotchka. She was re-teamed with her co-star in that film, Melvyn Douglas. The goal of George Cukor’s Two-Faced Woman (1941) was to “Americanize” Garbo. The director had her play a wife who pretends to be her own fictitious twin sister. This is done in order to recapture the affections of her estranged husband, played by Douglas.
Two-Faced Woman was a critical disaster and a commercial disappointment. The film barely broke even at the box office. Even though the movie got bad reviews, Garbo still won The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Best Acting Award for her performance.
Despite popular belief, the poor reception of Two-Faced Woman did not end Garbo’s career or force her to retire. With the Second World War raging in Europe, a huge portion of her audience was in real turmoil. As a result, American films were not a high priority for them. Garbo had planned to make a movie called “The Girl from Leningrad,” but it never came together.
“People often glibly say that the failure of Two-Faced Woman finished Garbo’s career. That’s a grotesque over-simplification. It certainly threw her, but I think that what really happened was that she just gave up. She didn’t want to go on.”
– George Cuckor
After the war ended Garbo was forty years old and hadn’t been in a new movie for four years. With concerns that she was too old to play a leading lady in post-war Hollywood, Garbo became disillusioned with the film industry.
“Time leaves traces on our small faces and bodies. It’s not the same anymore, being able to pull it off.”
– Greta Garbo
Still, Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with Walter Wagner Productions to make a movie based on Balzac’s La Duchesse de Langeais. Garbo trusted Wagner because he had produced Queen Christina and they had a good rapport during production. With the final script in hand, Garbo arrived in Rome in June of 1949 to begin filming.
However, the financing for the film never materialized and the production was soon abandoned. Garbo never acted in another movie again. She even turned down the role of Norma Desmond in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950).
“I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to the studio…I really wanted to live another life.”
– Greta Garbo
Cecil Beaton
In the late 1940s, Garbo was retired and enjoying life in solitude and privacy. She began a relationship with photographer and costume designer Cecil Beaton. Garbo was involved with him both intimately and platonically over the next couple of decades. During this period he took many photographs of her in various settings and locations. All told, 200 photos of her from 1946 until 1965 were produced.
In 1972, Beaton made an uncalculated error. He published a book The Happy Years in which he described his relationship with Garbo. The actress saw this as a great betrayal and permanently cut him out of her life.
Final Years in New York City
Garbo left Hollywood behind for good in 1953 and moved into a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in Manhattan. She eschewed fame and publicity for the rest of her life. Two years earlier she had become a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Garbo had very little connections, even loosely, to Hollywood over the last decades of her life. Only two of which are of any note whatsoever. First, she was celebrated with an Honorary Oscar in 1954. Garbo didn’t attend the ceremony, and the award was sent to her in the mail.
Not long after this event, Garbo attended a party where she met a young Broadway star named Burt Reynolds. The pair flirted, and not long after, she asked him to take her home. They shared a cab and eventually pulled up to her apartment building at 450 East 52nd Street. Clueless that the woman expected him to come inside with her. Reynolds later said:
“…Sorry, you didn’t tell me your name?” She replied, “My name is Greta Garbo.’ and I said my name is Bud. What an idiot I am”
Years later, a now-famous Reynolds would tell this story at various parties he attended. Word reached Garbo about him telling others about this non-event and she sent him a one-sentence note in the mail, which read:
“You were an idiot”
Contrary to popular belief, Garbo wasn’t completely averse to attending high-profile social events. She went to parties at the White House occasionally, even attending one thrown by JFK a few weeks prior to his assassination in November of 1963.
Garbo was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 but successfully beat the disease. Not long after, her kidneys began to fail. She undertook six-hour dialysis treatments three times a week at The Rogosin Institute in New York Hospital.
On April 15 1990 Garbo passed away as a result of pneumonia and renal failure. She was 84 years old. Garbo was cremated and her remains were interred at Skogskyrkogården Cemetery in 1999, just south of her native Stockholm. Garbo never married or had children. Her $32,000,000 estate went to her niece.
“If you ask me my favorite actress of all time, I will tell you that it is Greta Garbo. She shared her emotions with the camera and the audience. They were very truthful emotions. To my mind, she was an early practitioner of the Method. She felt everything she did and had the intelligence to go with it…And that is the key for the audience. If they believe it, then they’ve spent a couple of good hours at the cinema.”
– Gregory Peck
