Greta Garbo

She was described as the Swedish Sphinx by the American media for her beautiful yet enigmatic facade. She detested any kind of publicity and preferred solitude.

She was romantically linked with many of her co-stars and with at least one woman. She remained unmarried. She had a platonic relationship with the English photographer Cecil Beaton and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.

Her silence during World War II was misconstrued to be unpatriotic. Later it was discovered that she actually helped the Allied cause by identifying some prominent Nazi sympathisers in Stockholm.

Greta Garbo was born, on September 18, 1905, as Greta Lovisa Gustafson, in Stockholm to Karl and Anna. She had a brother Sven Alfred and sister Alva Maria.

Her father was an untrained labourer and the family led an impoverished life. In 1918, she discontinued her schooling to take care of her ailing father. His death two years later worsened the family’s economic situation.

Greta Garbo started working as a sales woman in a departmental store at the age of fifteen. Her innate acting ability was discovered when she featured in an advertisement promoting shorts for men.

In 1922, she enrolled as a student on scholarship at the celebrated ‘Royal Dramatic Theatre’, but she dropped midway from the course after meeting Mauritz Stiller, the famous Swedish film director.

Stiller became her mentor and persuaded her to change her surname to Garbo. In 1924 Stiller cast her in his film ‘The Legend of Gosta Berling’.

She accompanied Stiller to America ostensibly to act in his film but their partnership failed to materialize. Her first American hit was ‘The Torrent’ in 1926.

Her resounding success enabled her to negotiate for a pay which touched record levels. She would choose to work with directors, producers and cinematographers of her own choice.

The 1932 multi starrer, Grand Hotel was her most commercially successful film. It grossed $2,250,000 at the box-office. The film won an ‘Academy Award’ for the best picture that year.

Her performance in the 1935 MGM production ‘Anna Karenina’ as a woman entwined in an extra-marital love affair and love for her own son whom she is prohibited from seeing, was critically well received.