Biography

In silent films the audience felt that they could read her thoughts. She built a large fan base among urban women because she represented feminine modernity. Her characters were complex and conflicted.

Garbo was born in Sweden in 1905 and grew up in a working-class family. She gained a place at the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre school, where she was a star pupil. This led to film roles in Europe. Then she signed with MGM and moved to Hollywood.

While Garbo quickly established herself as an international star in silent film, she became the most popular star in the world with the arrival of sound. In Anna Christie, audiences were mesmerized by her voice. In 1933, Garbo finished her MGM contract and began making films by project. She would deliver a carefully crafted blockbuster about once each year instead of rushing from role to role. Garbo’s independent films were tied to censorship. First because Queen Christina triggered the implementation of the Production Code and then because her subsequent films challenged the boundaries of the censorship regime. Two-Faced Woman, her final film in 1941, was condemned by the Legion of Decency as immoral.

Though this was her final film, Garbo worked on projects for fifteen years that never came to fruition, usually due to censorship issues. She refused to compromise on playing interesting and challenging female characters.

Garbo would move to New York, traveled widely and spent time with her circle of friends in California, New York, and Europe. She overcame pernicious anemia, a condition that was fatal if not treated. This led her to eating a natural foods diet and exercising before either was generally popular. She was famous for her habit of walking everywhere.

Greta Garbo died in New York in 1990. She is buried at Skogskyrkogården in Stockholm, Sweden.

Her film roles

For two decades… 1922-1941

• 1922 - Luffar-Petter (or Peter the Tramp), her first appearance outside of advertising films for department stores

• 1924 - The Saga of Gösta Berling

• 1925 - The Joyless Street

• 1926 - Starred in three movies this year

  • Torrent, first American made movie and first movie for MGM

  • The Temptress

  • Flesh and the Devil

• 1927 - Love

• 1928 - Starred in three films this year

  • The Divine Woman

  • The Mysterious Lady

  • A Woman of Affairs

• 1929 - Busy year for Garbo with four movies

  • Wild Orchids

  • A Man’s Man

  • The Single Standard

  • The Kiss

• 1930 - Starred in three films this year

  • Anna Christie, her first ‘talkie’ marketed with the slogan “Garbo Talks!”

  • Romance

  • Anna Christie, the German-language version

• 1931 - Starred in three films this year

  • Inspiration

  • Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)

  • Mata Hari

• 1932 - Starred in two movies this year

  • Grand Hotel

  • As You Desire Me

• 1933 - Queen Christina

• 1934 - The Painted Veil

• 1935 - Anna Karenina

• 1936 - Camille

• 1937 - Conquest

• 1939 - Ninotchka

• 1941 - Two-Faced Woman, her final film

During these many films, Garbo worked alongside greats like Mauritz Stiller, Clark Gable, Lars Hanson, John Gilbert, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Lewis Stone, Nils Asther, Clarence Brown, William H. Daniels, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Lionel Barrymore, and many more.