Greta Garbo

The mysterious foreign actress of the 20s and 30s.
She made the leap from silent movies to talkies, a feat few others achieved.
 

REAL NAME: Greta Lovisa Gustaffson

BIRTH PLACE: Stockholm, Sweden

BIRTH DATE: September 18, 1905

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY:
    Torrent (1926) - Leonora Moreno
    The Temptress (1926) - Elena
    Flesh and the Devil (1926) - Felicitas
    Wild Orchids (1929) - Lillie Sterling
    Anna Christie (1930) - Anna Christie
    Mata Hari (1931) - Mata Hari
    Grand Hotel (1932) - Grusinkaya
    Queen Christina (1933) - Christina
    Anna Karenina (1935) - Anna Karenina
    Camille (1936) - Marguerite Gautier
    Ninotchka (1939) - Ninothcka
    Two-Faced Woman (1941) - Karin Borg Blake
    Wonderful Times (1951) - Herself

MARRIAGE: None, though she was going to marry actor John Gilbert in 1927. She apparently got "cold feet" before the wedding, and left him at the altar.

DEATH: April 15, 1990, after having lived many years in seclusion.

OTHER INTRIGUING FACTS:
    The Guinness Book of World Records once voted Garbo as the most beautiful woman to have ever lived.
    For most of her career, Garbo refused to give out autographs, interviews, or responses to fan mail. She was a very secretive person whose trademark quotation became "I want to be alone" (though she later corrected the public misconception of the statement. It was actually "I want to be left alone.")
    Garbo was criticized for not aiding the Allies in World War II - but it was later revealed that she did indeed turn over Nazis in Sweden to the British during the war.
   For many years, it was rumoured that Garbo and Mercedes de Acosta (a famed poet and lesbian) were romantically involved. Exactly 10 years after Garbo's death, as instructed by de Acosta herself, their "secret letters" were opened and revealed to the public. There was no evidence of romantic relations between them.

For more information, see http://home.hiwaay.net/~oliver/garbo.html