81-758: [REDACTED] Look up garbo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Garbo may refer to: People [ edit ] Greta Garbo (1905–1990), Swedish actress Gunnar Garbo (1924–2016), Norwegian journalist and politician Ingvald Garbo (1891–1941), member of the Norwegian Resistance in WWII Norman Garbo (1919–2017), American author, lecturer and painter Raffaellino del Garbo (1466), Florentine painter Juan Pujol García (1912–1988), codename "Garbo", Spanish double agent for
162-483: A waste collector Garbo (Darawiish) , a Darawiish administrative division Garbo (Puerto Vallarta) , a bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico See also [ edit ] All pages with titles containing Garbo Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Garbo . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
243-418: A waste collector Garbo (Darawiish) , a Darawiish administrative division Garbo (Puerto Vallarta) , a bar in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico See also [ edit ] All pages with titles containing Garbo Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Garbo . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
324-413: A chic, modern woman. She played a "double" role that featured her dancing the rhumba , swimming, and skiing. The film was a critical failure, but, contrary to popular belief, it performed reasonably well at the box office. Garbo referred to the film as "my grave". Two-Faced Woman was her last film; she was thirty-six and had made 28 feature films in a span of 16 years. Although Garbo felt humiliated by
405-457: A comeback was "I have made enough faces", as she once said to David Niven . Garbo was often perplexed about what to do and how to spend her time, always struggling with her many eccentricities and her life-long melancholy and moodiness. ("Drifting" was the word she frequently used; in 1946 she told reporters, "I have no plans, either for the movies or anything else. I'm just drifting." ) As she approached her sixtieth birthday in 1965, she told
486-525: A different director and cast—filmed a German-language version of Anna Christie that was released in December 1930. The film's success certified Garbo's successful transition to talkies . In her follow-up film, Romance , she portrayed an Italian opera star, opposite Lewis Stone . She was paired opposite Robert Montgomery in Inspiration (1931), and her profile was used to boost the career of
567-442: A few of them. In the few instances when she did accept them, the slightest problem led her to drop out. Although she refused throughout her life to talk to friends about her reasons for retiring, four years before her death, she told Swedish biographer Sven Broman: "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." From
648-405: A frequent walking companion, "In a few days, it will be the anniversary of the sorrow that never leaves me, that will never leave me for the rest of my life." She told another friend in 1971, "I suppose I suffer from very deep depression ." One biographer claims that she could have been bipolar . "I am very happy one moment, the next there is nothing left for me", she said in 1933. Beginning in
729-441: A letter to her friend, Austrian actress and writer Salka Viertel , she wrote: "I go nowhere, see no one... It is hard and sad to be alone, but sometimes it's even more difficult to be with someone..." In another letter in 1970 she wrote: "I feel very tired and cannot seem to get myself together to plan where to go... I am sorry but something always seem to go a little wrong with me, and it is not in my head either..." Because Garbo
810-461: A lower-class woman, who becomes the world-renowned mistress Camille. Production was marred, however, by the sudden death of Thalberg, then only thirty-seven, which plunged the Hollywood studios into a "state of profound shock", writes David Bret . Garbo had grown close to Thalberg and his wife, Norma Shearer , and had often dropped by their house unannounced. Her grief for Thalberg, some believe,
891-467: 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
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#1732791338765972-734: A principal part in his film The Saga of Gösta Berling , a dramatization of the famous novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf , which also featured the actor Lars Hanson . Stiller became her mentor, training her as a film actress and managing all aspects of her nascent career. She followed her role in Gösta Berling with a starring role in the German film Die freudlose Gasse ( Joyless Street or The Street of Sorrow , 1925), directed by G. W. Pabst and co-starring Asta Nielsen . She praised Asta and said: "In terms of expression and versatility, I am nothing to her." Accounts differ on
1053-484: A private viewing of Gösta Berling . He was immediately struck by Garbo's magnetism and became more interested in her than in Stiller. "It was her eyes," his daughter recalled him saying, "I can make a star out of her." In the second version, Mayer had already seen Gösta Berling before his Berlin trip, and Garbo, not Stiller, was his primary interest. On the way to the screening, Mayer said to his daughter: "This director
1134-701: 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 in the United States, 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
1215-481: A sport for photographers, the media, admirers, and curious New Yorkers, but she strictly maintained her privacy and her elusive mystique followed her to the end. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann , who was dubbed "The New Greta Garbo", and played Anna Christie on Broadway in 1977, saw Garbo in the street and ran after her, in hopes of meeting her and telling her she was playing Anna Christie. Garbo ran away from her and disappeared into Central Park . Ullmann gave up
1296-444: A subtlety of expression to the art of silent acting and that its effect on audiences cannot be exaggerated. She "lowers her head to look calculating or flutters her lips," he says. "Her face darkens with a slight tightening around the eyes and mouth; she registers a passing idea with a contraction of her brows or a drooping of her lids. Worlds turned on her movements." During this period, Garbo began to require unusual conditions during
1377-417: A working-class district regarded as the city's slum. Garbo later recalled: 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
1458-563: A year of negotiations, Garbo agreed to renew her contract with MGM on the condition that she would star in Queen Christina (1933), and her salary would be increased to $ 300,000 per film. The film's screenplay had been written by Salka Viertel ; although reluctant to make the movie, MGM relented at Garbo's insistence. For her leading man, MGM suggested Charles Boyer or Laurence Olivier , but Garbo rejected both, preferring her former co-star and lover John Gilbert . The studio balked at
1539-791: Is wonderful, but what we really ought to look at is the girl ... The girl, look at the girl!" After the screening, his daughter reported, he was unwavering: "I'll take her without him. I'll take her with him. Number one is the girl." 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
1620-467: 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
1701-469: The Mosebacke Theatre. At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school, and, typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time, she did not attend high school. She later acknowledged a resulting inferiority complex . The Spanish flu spread throughout Stockholm in the winter of 1919 and her father, to whom she was very close, became ill and lost his job. Garbo cared for him, taking him to
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#17327913387651782-576: The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress . The film was successful in international markets, and had better domestic rentals than MGM anticipated. Still, its profit was significantly diminished because of Garbo's exorbitant salary. Garbo selected George Cukor 's romantic drama Camille (1936) as her next project. Thalberg cast her opposite Robert Taylor and former co-star, Lionel Barrymore . Cukor carefully crafted Garbo's portrayal of Marguerite Gautier,
1863-580: The Philadelphia Orchestra , with whom she had a brief, but highly publicized relationship while the pair traveled throughout Europe the following year; whether the relationship was romantic or platonic is uncertain. In his diary, Erich Maria Remarque discusses a liaison with Garbo in 1941, and in his memoir, Cecil Beaton described an affair with her in 1947 and 1948. In 1941, she met the Russian-born millionaire George Schlee, who
1944-477: The "slouchy hat". In her retirement, Garbo generally led a private life of simplicity and leisure. She made no public appearances and assiduously avoided the publicity she loathed. Contrary to myth, from the beginning she had many friends and acquaintances with whom she socialized and travelled, although it has also been said that in later years she did not trust many people and therefore did not have many close friends. Her usual response to anyone asking her about
2025-527: The 1940s, Garbo became an art collector. Although many of the paintings she owned were of negligible monetary value, she also owned valuable works by Renoir , Rouault , Kandinsky , Bonnard and Jawlensky . Her art collection was worth millions of dollars when she died in 1990. On 9 February 1951, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in Manhattan in 1953, where she lived for
2106-701: The British Garbo (singer) (Renato Abate, born 1958), Italian singer Greg Garbowsky (born 1986), known as Garbo, American musician Places [ edit ] Għarb , Gozo, Malta Garbo, Tibet Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Garbo (film) , a 1992 Australian comedy Garbo (2005 film) , a documentary about Greta Garbo by Kevin Brownlow Garbo, a fictional character in American TV drama Dirt Other uses [ edit ] "Garbo", Australian slang for
2187-514: The British Garbo (singer) (Renato Abate, born 1958), Italian singer Greg Garbowsky (born 1986), known as Garbo, American musician Places [ edit ] Għarb , Gozo, Malta Garbo, Tibet Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Garbo (film) , a 1992 Australian comedy Garbo (2005 film) , a documentary about Greta Garbo by Kevin Brownlow Garbo, a fictional character in American TV drama Dirt Other uses [ edit ] "Garbo", Australian slang for
2268-539: 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
2349-557: The United States. In the midst of the Great Depression , American screen audiences seemed to favor "home-grown" screen couples, such as Clark Gable and Jean Harlow . David O. Selznick wanted to cast Garbo as the dying heiress in Dark Victory (eventually released in 1939 with other leads), but she chose Leo Tolstoy 's Anna Karenina (1935), in which she played another of her renowned roles. Her performance won her
2430-557: 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. Garbo was a shy daydreamer as a child. She disliked school and preferred to play alone. She was a natural leader who became interested in theatre at an early age. She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances, and dreamed of becoming an actress. Later, she would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent
2511-427: The boss." In later years when asked about Gilbert, Garbo said "I can't remember what I ever saw in him." According to Ava Gardner 's autobiography, Garbo admitted to her that Gilbert was the only man she'd ever really loved but he had "let [her] down" by having a "superstitious affair" with "a little extra" during their last film and she had never forgiven him. In 1937, Garbo met Leopold Stokowski , then conductor of
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2592-514: The chase after she saw that Garbo looked "frightened". She said: "Yes, she outpaced me. But when she turned and looked so frightened I gave up and didn't follow her. I was younger; I could have made it, but I didn't." Garbo never married, had no children, and lived alone for most of her adult life. Her most famous romance was with her frequent MGM co-star John Gilbert , with whom she lived intermittently in 1926 and 1927. Soon after their romance began, Gilbert began helping her develop acting skills on
2673-589: The circumstances of her first contract with Louis B. Mayer , at that time vice president and general manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . Victor Seastrom , a respected Swedish director at MGM, was a friend of Stiller and encouraged Mayer to meet him on a trip to Berlin. There are two recent versions of what happened next. In one, Mayer, always looking for new talent, had done his research and was interested in Stiller. He made an offer, but Stiller demanded that Garbo be part of any contract, convinced that she would be an asset to his career. Mayer balked, but eventually agreed to
2754-523: The departure of Garbo's serious and melancholy image as she transferred to comedy. Favoured by critics and box-office success in the United States and abroad, it was banned in the Soviet Union. With George Cukor's Two-Faced Woman (1941), MGM attempted to capitalize on Garbo's success in Ninotchka by re-teaming her with Melvyn Douglas in another romantic comedy which sought to transform her into
2835-521: The doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille (1936) to be her finest and the role gained her a third 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. Two-Faced Woman (1941), a box-office flop ,
2916-466: The early days of her career, Garbo avoided industry social functions, preferring to spend her time alone or with friends. She never signed autographs or answered fan mail, and rarely gave interviews. Nor did she ever appear at Oscar ceremonies, even when she was nominated. Her aversion to publicity and the press was undeniably genuine, and exasperating to the studio at first. In an interview in 1928, she explained that her desire for privacy began when she
2997-513: 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
3078-400: 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." Still, Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with producer Walter Wanger , who had produced Queen Christina , to shoot a picture based on Balzac 's La Duchesse de Langeais . Max Ophüls
3159-496: The film was released, it "caused panic, with police reserves required to keep the waiting mob in order." The following year, she played a Russian ballerina in Grand Hotel (1932), opposite an ensemble cast, including John Barrymore , Joan Crawford , and Wallace Beery , among others. The film won that year's Academy Award for Best Picture . Both films were MGM's highest-earning films of 1931 and 1932, respectively, and Garbo
3240-516: The footage were included in the 2005 TCM documentary Garbo . In 1949, she was offered the role of fictional silent-film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard , directed by Ninotchka co-writer Billy Wilder . However, after a meeting with film producer Charles Brackett , she insisted that she had no interest in the part whatsoever. She was offered many roles both in the 1940s and throughout her retirement years but rejected all but
3321-543: The 💕 [REDACTED] Look up garbo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Garbo may refer to: People [ edit ] Greta Garbo (1905–1990), Swedish actress Gunnar Garbo (1924–2016), Norwegian journalist and politician Ingvald Garbo (1891–1941), member of the Norwegian Resistance in WWII Norman Garbo (1919–2017), American author, lecturer and painter Raffaellino del Garbo (1466), Florentine painter Juan Pujol García (1912–1988), codename "Garbo", Spanish double agent for
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3402-474: The hospital for weekly treatments. He died in 1920 when she was 14 years old. Garbo first worked as a soap-lather girl in a barber shop before taking a job in the PUB department store where she ran errands and worked in the millinery department. After modeling hats for the store's catalogues, Garbo earned a more lucrative job as a fashion model at Nordiska Kompaniet . In 1920, a director of film commercials for
3483-458: The idea of casting Gilbert, fearing his declining career would hurt the film's box-office, but Garbo prevailed. Queen Christina was a lavish production, becoming one of the studio's biggest productions at the time. Publicized as "Garbo returns", the film premiered in December 1933 to positive reviews and box-office triumph and became the highest-grossing film of the year. The movie, however, met with controversy upon its release; censors objected to
3564-421: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garbo&oldid=1143868999 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages garbo From Misplaced Pages,
3645-494: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garbo&oldid=1143868999 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson ; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990)
3726-505: 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
3807-459: The negative reviews of Two-Faced Woman , she did not intend to retire at first. But her films depended on the European market, and when it fell through because of the war, finding a vehicle was problematic for MGM. Garbo signed a one-picture deal in 1942 to make The Girl from Leningrad , but the project quickly dissolved. She still thought she would continue when the war was over, though she
3888-531: The relatively unknown Clark Gable in Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931). Although the films did not match Garbo's success with her sound debut, she was ranked as the most popular female star in the United States in 1930 and 1931. Garbo followed with two of her best-remembered roles. She played the World War I German spy in the lavish production of Mata Hari (1931), opposite Ramón Novarro . When
3969-509: The rest of her life. Her New York apartment buzzer was identified by a solitary G and the interior was "light and airy study in pink". In order to protect her privacy, she preferred being addressed as "Miss [Harriet] Brown". Her close friends were only allowed to call her Miss Garbo or G.G.; if they called her Greta, she wouldn't respond. Garbo was a close friend of dancer Devi Dja who taught her Indonesian traditional dance after which they performed Indonesian art performances together. Garbo
4050-410: The scenes in which Garbo disguised herself as a man and kissed a female co-star. Although her domestic popularity was undiminished in the early 1930s, high profits for Garbo's films after Queen Christina depended on the foreign market for their success. The type of historical and melodramatic films she began to make on the advice of Viertel were highly successful abroad, but considerably less so in
4131-471: The screen. In her retirement, she shunned publicity, led a private life, and became an art collector whose paintings included works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir , Pierre Bonnard and Kees van Dongen . Although she refused throughout her life to talk to friends about her reasons for retiring, four years before her death, she told Swedish biographer Sven Broman: "I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to
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#17327913387654212-469: The set and teaching her how to behave like a star, socialize at parties, and deal with studio bosses. They co-starred again in three more hits: Love (1927), A Woman of Affairs (1928), and Queen Christina (1933). Gilbert allegedly proposed to Garbo numerous times and she finally accepted, but backed out just before the wedding. "I was in love with him," she said. "But I froze. I was afraid he would tell me what to do and boss me. I always wanted to be
4293-481: The shift for as long as possible. MGM itself was the last Hollywood studio to convert to sound, and Garbo's last silent film, The Kiss (1929), was also the studio's. Despite the fears, Garbo became one of the biggest box-office draws of the next decade. In late 1929, MGM cast Garbo in Anna Christie (1930), a film adaptation of the 1922 play by Eugene O'Neill , her first speaking role. The screenplay
4374-467: The shooting of her scenes. She prohibited visitors—including the studio brass—from her sets and demanded that black flats or screens surround her to prevent extras and technicians from watching her. When asked about these eccentric requirements, she said: "If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise." Despite her status as a star of silent films, the studio feared that her Swedish accent might impair her work in sound, and delayed
4455-495: The small part of Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples in his adaptation of Proust 's Remembrance of Things Past . He exclaimed: "I am very pleased with the idea that this woman, with her severe and authoritarian presence, should figure in the decadent and rarefied climate of the world described by Proust." Claims that Garbo was interested in the part cannot be substantiated. In 1971, Garbo vacationed in Southern France at
4536-657: The store cast Garbo in roles advertising women's clothing. Her first commercial premiered on 12 December 1920 In 1922, Garbo caught the attention of director Erik Arthur Petschler, who gave her a part in his short comedy, Peter the Tramp . From 1922 to 1924, she studied at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in Stockholm. She was recruited in 1924 by the Finnish director Mauritz Stiller to play
4617-546: The studio teamed her with producer-director Ernst Lubitsch to film Ninotchka (1939), her first comedy. The film was one of the first Hollywood movies which, under the cover of a satirical, light romance, depicted the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin as being rigid and gray when compared to Paris in its pre-war years. Ninotchka premiered in October 1939, publicized with the catchphrase "Garbo laughs!", commenting on
4698-471: The studio ... I really wanted to live another life." 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
4779-510: 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
4860-510: The summer home of her close friend Baroness Cécile de Rothschild who introduced her to Samuel Adams Green , an art collector and curator in New York City. Green became an important friend and walking companion. He was in the habit of tape-recording all of his telephone calls, including many of his conversations with Garbo. He did so with her permission, but Garbo ended the friendship in 1981 after being falsely told that Green had played
4941-451: The tapes to friends. In his last will and testament, Green bequeathed all of the tapes in 2011 to the film archives at Wesleyan University . The tapes reveal Garbo's personality in later life, her sense of humor, and various eccentricities. In 1977, Garbo wrote to Frederick Sands: "I am forever running away from something or somebody"... "Unconsciously I have always known that I was not destined for real and lasting happiness." Although she
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#17327913387655022-507: 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
5103-985: The twentieth century's most publicized women. She is closely associated with a line from Grand Hotel , one which the American Film Institute in 2005 voted the 30th-most memorable movie quote of all time , "I want to be alone; I just want to be alone." The theme was a running gag in her movies that began during the silent period. According to a 1955 piece in LIFE magazine , Garbo explained that she'd said: "I want to be let alone", not "I want to be alone". Fashion and personal style After starring in Torrent (1926), she became known as "the Art Deco Diva ". She favored men's shoes and clothes and her style has been described as "trench coat, simple shoes, shirts, cigarette pants , slouch hat and big sunglasses." Garbo has been credited with popularizing
5184-426: Was Clarence Brown 's lavish production of Conquest (1937), opposite Charles Boyer . The plot was the dramatized romance between Napoleon and Marie Walewska . It was MGM's biggest and most-publicized movie of its year, but upon its release, it became one of the studio's biggest failures of the decade at the box office. When her contract expired soon thereafter, she returned briefly to Sweden. On 3 May 1938, Garbo
5265-452: Was "even more interesting through being heard than she was in her mute portrayals. She reveals no nervousness before the microphone and her careful interpretation of Anna can scarcely be disputed." Garbo received her first Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for her performance, although she lost to MGM colleague Norma Shearer . Her nomination that year included her performance in Romance (1930). After filming ended, Garbo—along with
5346-478: Was a Swedish-American actress and a premier 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
5427-487: Was a child, stating, "As early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I've always been moody. I detest crowds, I don't like many people." The artist James Montgomery Flagg said in 1933 that when he was allowed to sketch Garbo at a director's party in Hollywood some years earlier she told him she suffered from melancholia. At that time she had a Swedish phonograph record of laughs of all kinds which she played when visiting, to observe her hosts' response. In 1937, in
5508-523: Was a dinner guest at the White House on 13 November 1963, just nine days before the assassination of President Kennedy . She spent the night at the Washington, D.C. home of philanthropist Florence Mahoney. Garbo's niece reported that Garbo had always spoken of it as a "magical evening". Italian film director Luchino Visconti allegedly attempted to bring Garbo back to the screen in 1969 with
5589-646: 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." The impact of Garbo's acting and screen presence quickly established her reputation as one of Hollywood's greatest actresses. Film historian and critic David Denby argues that Garbo introduced
5670-555: Was adapted by Frances Marion , and the film was produced by Irving Thalberg and Paul Bern . Sixteen minutes into the film, she famously utters her first line, "Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby." The film premiered in New York City on 21 February 1930, publicized with the catchphrase "Garbo talks!", and was the highest-grossing film of the year. Her performance received positive reviews; Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times remarked that Garbo
5751-460: Was ambivalent and indecisive about returning to the screen. Salka Viertel , Garbo's close friend and collaborator, said in 1945: "Greta is impatient to work. But on the other side, she's afraid of it." Garbo also worried about her age. "Time leaves traces on our small faces and bodies. It's not the same anymore, being able to pull it off." George Cukor, director of Two-Faced Woman , and often blamed for its failure, said: "People often glibly say that
5832-535: Was among the many stars—including Joan Crawford , Norma Shearer , Luise Rainer , Katharine Hepburn , Mae West , Marlene Dietrich , Fred Astaire , and Dolores del Río , among others—dubbed to be " Box Office Poison " in an article published by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners of America. After the box-office failure of Conquest , MGM decided a change of pace was needed to resurrect Garbo's career. For her next movie,
5913-592: Was dubbed "the greatest money-making machine ever put on screen". Garbo's close friend Mercedes de Acosta then penned a screenplay for her to portray Joan of Arc , but MGM rebuffed the idea, and the project was shelved. By this time she had a fanatical worldwide following and the phenomenon of "Garbomania" reached its peak. After appearing in As You Desire Me (1932), the first of three films in which Garbo starred opposite Melvyn Douglas , her MGM contract expired, and she returned to Sweden. After nearly
5994-411: 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
6075-477: 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
6156-414: Was increasingly withdrawn in her final years, Garbo became close to her cook and housekeeper Claire Koger, who worked for her for 31 years. "We were very close—like sisters," Koger said. Throughout her life, Garbo was known for taking long daily walks with companions or by herself. In retirement, she walked the streets of New York City, dressed casually and wearing large sunglasses. "Garbo-watching" became
6237-536: Was more profound than for John Gilbert , who died earlier that same year. His death also added to the sombre mood required for the closing scenes of Camille . When the film premiered in New York on 12 December 1936, it became an international success, Garbo's first major success in three years. She won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her performance, and she was nominated once more for an Academy Award. Garbo regarded Camille as her favorite out of all of her films. Garbo's follow-up project
6318-481: Was nicknamed Kata, the way she mispronounced her name, for the first ten years of her life. Her parents met in Stockholm, where her father had been visiting from Frinnaryd . He moved to Stockholm to become independent and worked as a street cleaner, grocer, factory worker and butcher's assistant. He married Anna, who moved from Högsby . The family was impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No. 32. They raised their three children in
6399-504: Was slated to adapt and direct. She made several screen tests , learned the script, and arrived in Rome in the summer of 1949 to shoot the picture. However, the financing failed to materialize, and the project was abandoned. The screen tests—the last time Garbo stepped in front of a movie camera—were thought to have been lost for 41 years until they were re-discovered in 1990 by film historians Leonard Maltin and Jeanine Basinger . Parts of
6480-510: Was suspicious and mistrustful of the media, and often at odds with MGM executives, she spurned Hollywood's publicity rules. She was routinely referred to by the press as the "Swedish Sphinx". Her reticence and fear of strangers perpetuated the mystery and mystique she projected both on screen and in real life. MGM eventually capitalized on it, for it bolstered the image of the silent and reclusive woman of mystery. In spite of her strenuous efforts to avoid publicity, Garbo paradoxically became one of
6561-432: Was the last of her 28 films. Following this commercial failure, she continued to be offered movie roles, though she declined most of them. Those she did accept failed to materialize, either due to lack of funds or because she dropped out during filming. In 1954, Garbo was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances". Over time, Garbo would decline all opportunities to return to
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