Editing Greta Garbo

{{Short description|Swedish-American actress (1905–1990)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name                      = Greta Garbo
| image                     = Garbo in Inspiration.jpg
| caption                   = Garbo in ''[[Inspiration (1931 film)|Inspiration]]'' (1931)
| birth_name                = Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
| birth_date                = {{Birth date|df=yes|1905|09|18}}
| birth_place               = [[Stockholm]], Sweden
| citizenship               = {{ubl|Sweden (until 1951)| United States (from 1951)}}
| nationality               = [[Swedes|Swedish]]
| death_date                = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1990|04|15|1905|09|18}}
| death_place               = [[New York City]], U.S.
| resting_place             = [[Skogskyrkogården]] Cemetery, Stockholm
| alma_mater                = [[Royal Dramatic Training Academy]]
| years_active              = 1920–1941
| occupation                = Actress
| website                   =
| signature                 = Greta Garbo signature.svg
}}

'''Greta Garbo'''{{efn|{{IPA|sv|ˈɡrêːta ˈɡǎrːbʊ|-|sv-Greta Garbo.ogg}}}} (born '''Greta Lovisa Gustafsson''';{{efn|{{IPA|sv|ˈɡrêːta lʊˈvîːsa ˈɡɵ̂sːtafˌsɔn|pron}}}} 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=1951 Greta Garbo becomes U.S. citizen... - RareNewspapers.com |url=https://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/575235 |access-date=2021-11-13 |website=www.rarenewspapers.com |archive-date=13 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113130615/https://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/575235 |url-status=live }}</ref> actress and a premier star during Hollywood's [[Silent film|silent]] and early [[Classical Hollywood cinema|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 [[tragedy|tragic]] characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the [[American Film Institute]] ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars|greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema]].

Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film ''[[The Saga of Gosta Berling|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 film)|Torrent]]'' (1926). Garbo's performance in ''[[Flesh and the Devil]]'' (1926), her third movie in the United States, made her an international star.{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=38}} In 1928, Garbo starred in ''[[A Woman of Affairs]],'' which catapulted her to MGM's highest box-office star, surpassing 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 film)|The Kiss]]'' (1929).

With Garbo's first sound film, ''[[Anna Christie (1930 English-language film)|Anna Christie]]'' (1930), MGM marketers enticed the public with the tagline "Garbo talks!" That same year she starred in ''[[Romance (1930 film)|Romance]]'' and for her performances in both films she received her first combined nomination out of three nominations for the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1377809209073 |title=Session Timeout – Academy Awards® Database – AMPAS |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103052915/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1377809209073 |archive-date=3 November 2013}}</ref> 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 film)|Mata Hari]]'' (1931), ''[[Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)]]'' (1931), ''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|Grand Hotel]]'' (1932), ''[[Queen Christina (film)|Queen Christina]]'' (1933), and ''[[Anna Karenina (1935 film)|Anna Karenina]]'' (1935).

Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesan [[The Lady of the Camellias|Marguerite Gautier]] in ''[[Camille (1936 film)|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 (magazine article)|box office poison]] in 1938. Her career revived with a turn to comedy in ''[[Ninotchka]]'' (1939), which earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination. ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]'' (1941), a [[box-office flop]], 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".<ref name="awardsdatabase.oscars.org">{{cite web |title=The Official Academy Awards Database |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp |access-date=13 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208011732/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/BasicSearchInput.jsp |archive-date=8 February 2009}}</ref>

Over time, Garbo would decline all opportunities to return to 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]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/19/arts/garbo-s-collection-and-a-van-gogh-are-to-be-sold.html |title=Garbo's Collection and a van Gogh Are to Be Sold |last=Reif |first=Rita |work=The New York Times |date=19 July 1990 |access-date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=31 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231023150/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/19/arts/garbo-s-collection-and-a-van-gogh-are-to-be-sold.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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&nbsp;... I really wanted to live another life."{{Sfn|Broman|1990|p=271}}

== Early life and education ==
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson<ref name="LCSN-19401104">{{Cite news |title=Asks Citizenship |url=https://newspapers.com/image/28410898/ |newspaper=[[Las Cruces Sun-News]] |date=4 November 1940 |access-date=21 April 2020 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |page=3 |volume=60 |number=181 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801090543/https://newspapers.com/image/28410898/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was born in [[Södermalm]], [[Stockholm]], Sweden at 7:30&nbsp;pm.<ref name="Greta Garbo: A Divine Star">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soO1AwAAQBAJ&q=1905&pg=PT113 |title=Greta Garbo: A Divine Star |isbn=978-1-84954-353-8 |last1=Bret |first1=David |date= 2012 |publisher=Biteback |access-date=11 December 2020 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150357/https://books.google.com/books?id=soO1AwAAQBAJ&q=1905&pg=PT113#v=snippet&q=1905&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref name="WareBraukman2004p227-228" /><ref name="Sjolander1971p12-13" /> She had an older brother, Sven Alfred (1898–1967), and an older sister, Alva Maria (1903–1926).<ref name="Furhammar1991p129" /> Garbo was nicknamed Kata, which was how she had mispronounced her first name, for the first ten years of her life.<ref name="Greta Garbo: A Divine Star" />

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.{{sfn|Souhami|1994|p=64}} He married Anna, who moved from [[Högsby]].<ref>[http://carina.stridlund.se/hellbomwebb/pcf361e2e.html "Karl Alfred Gustafsson"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420061300/http://carina.stridlund.se/hellbomwebb/pcf361e2e.html |date=20 April 2012 }}. Retrieved 7 December 2010.</ref>{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955b|p=76}} The family was impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No. 32. They raised their three children in a working-class district regarded as the city's slum.<ref name="DAmico1962p901" /> Garbo later recalled:

{{blockquote|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.<ref name="Lektyr1931" />}}
Garbo was a shy daydreamer as a child.<ref name="Corporation1974">{{Cite book |title=Liberty |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQYAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57 |access-date=4 August 2010 |year=1974 |publisher=Liberty Library Corporation |pages=27–31 & 54–57}}{{dead link|date=August 2011}}</ref> She disliked school<ref name="Biery1928a-hatesc" /><ref>{{Cite magazine |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=8 November 1937 |title=After Twelve Years Greta Garbo Wants to Go Home to Sweden |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kD8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA81 |access-date=4 August 2011 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150354/https://books.google.com/books?id=kD8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> and preferred to play alone.<ref name="Biery1928a-noplay" /> She was a natural leader{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=25}} who became interested in theatre at an early age.<ref name="Biery1928a-sixorseven" /> She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances,{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=26}} and dreamed of becoming an actress.<ref name="Biery1928a-sixorseven" /><ref name="Biery1928a-dreaming" /> Later, she would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent the [[Mosebacke]] Theatre.<ref name="Lacouture1999">{{Cite book |author=Jean Lacouture |title=Greta Garbo: La Dame aux Caméras |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09EaAQAAIAAJ |access-date=6 August 2010 |year=1999 |publisher=Liana Levi |location=Paris |language=fr |isbn=978-2-86746-214-6 |page=22 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150321/https://books.google.com/books?id=09EaAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school,<ref>{{Cite book |author=Robert Payne |title=The Great Garbo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_cxZAAAAMAAJ |access-date=4 August 2010 |date=November 1976 |publisher=W. H. Allen |location=London |isbn=978-0-491-01538-7 |page=22 |quote=In June 1919, she left school, and never returned. |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150214/https://books.google.com/books?id=_cxZAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and, typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time, she did not attend high school. She later acknowledged a resulting [[inferiority complex]].{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=32}}
[[File:Approved application for Greta Gustafsson to change her name to Greta Garbo.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Hand-written letter with multiple signatures and with stamps of approval.|The approved application by Greta's mother to allow her name change from Gustafsson to Garbo.]]
The [[1918 flu pandemic|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.<ref name="Parish2007">{{Cite book |first=James Robert |last=Parish |title=The Hollywood Book of Extravagance: The Totally Infamous, Mostly Disastrous, and Always Compelling Excesses of America's Film and TV Idols |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CJS5RL7eqdsC&pg=PA76 |access-date=4 August 2010 |date= 2007 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn=978-0-470-05205-1 |page=76 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150205/https://books.google.com/books?id=CJS5RL7eqdsC&pg=PA76 |url-status=live }}</ref> Garbo cared for him, taking him to the hospital for weekly treatments. He died in 1920 when she was 14 years old.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955b|p=76}}{{sfn|NYTimes|1990}}

==Career==
===1920–1924: Beginnings===
[[File:Greta Garbo in Gösta Berlings Saga 1924 cropped.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.2|Garbo in her first leading role in the Swedish film ''[[The Saga of Gosta Berling|The Saga of Gösta Berling]]'' (1924) with [[Lars Hanson]]]]
Garbo first worked as a soap-lather girl in a barber shop before taking a job in the [[PUB (Stockholm)|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]].{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=36}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Strömquist |first=Susanna |title=Nordens Paris. NK:s Franska damskrädderi 1902–1966 |publisher=[[Nordic Museum]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-91-7108-619-8 |location=Stockholm |pages=65 |language=Swedish}}</ref> In 1920, a director of film commercials for the store cast Garbo in roles advertising women's clothing. Her first commercial premiered on 12 December 1920<ref name="Herr">[http://www.sfi.se/en-GB/Swedish-film-database/Item/?type=MOVIE&itemid=18583 "Herrskapet Stockholm ute på inköp (1920)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102090646/http://www.sfi.se/en-GB/Swedish-film-database/Item/?type=MOVIE&itemid=18583 |date=2 January 2016 }} The Swedish Film Database, Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved 3 April 2012. {{in lang|sv}}</ref> In 1922, Garbo caught the attention of director [[Erik A. Petschler]], who gave her a part in his short comedy, ''Peter the Tramp''<ref name="SFdb/3537">{{cite web |title=Luffar-Petter (1922) |url=https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/en/item/?type=film&itemid=3537 |website=[[Swedish Film Database]]  - SFdb |publisher=[[Swedish Film Institute]] |access-date=15 May 2025 |language=en}}</ref> (''Luffar-Petter ''<ref name="nypl/Luffar-Petter |">{{cite web |title=Greta Garbo, Tyra Ryman and Iréne Zetterberg in the motion picture Luffar-Petter |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-b935-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 |website=[[New York Public Library]] Digital Collections |access-date=15 May 2025 |language=en}}</ref>).{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=34}}<ref name="loc.gov/2021670583">{{cite web |title=Peter the Tramp |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670583/ |website=loc.gov |access-date=15 May 2025 |language= |date=1 January 1929}}</ref>

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 a principal part in his film ''[[The Saga of Gosta Berling|The Saga of Gösta Berling]]'', a dramatization of the [[Gösta Berlings Saga|famous novel]] by [[Nobel Prize for Literature|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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=54–61}} 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]].{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=67–69}} She praised Asta and said: "In terms of expression and versatility, I am nothing to her."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Asta Nielsen, the silent film star who taught Garbo everything {{!}} Movies {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/27/asta-nielsen-the-silent-film-star-who-taught-garbo-everything |access-date=2023-07-09 |website=amp.theguardian.com |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709234506/https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/27/asta-nielsen-the-silent-film-star-who-taught-garbo-everything |url-status=live }}</ref>

Accounts differ on the circumstances of her first contract with [[Louis B. Mayer]], at that time vice president and general manager of [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. [[Victor Sjöström|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,{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=72–74}} 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 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,{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=80–83}} 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 is wonderful, but what we really ought to look at is the girl&nbsp;... 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."{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=9}}

===1925–1929: Silent film stardom===
[[File:Portrait photograph of Greta Garbo, 1925.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|Portrait photograph of Greta Garbo, 1925]]

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}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thomassjoberg.com/wp-content/uploads/Greta-Garbo.pdf |title=Greta Garbo's War on Hollywood |first=Scott |last=Reisfeld |date=September 2007 |work=Scanorama |access-date=8 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209022453/http://www.thomassjoberg.com/wp-content/uploads/Greta-Garbo.pdf |archive-date=9 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 the studio.{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=84}}{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=85}} 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&nbsp;... Oh, you lovely little Sweden, I promise that when I return to you, my sad face will smile as never before."<ref name="Sands">Sands, Frederick. ''The Divine Garbo'', Grosset & Dunlap (1979) pp. 69–73</ref> 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 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."<ref name="Sands" />

During her rise to stardom, film historian Mark Vieira notes, "Thalberg decreed that henceforth, Garbo would play a young, but worldly wise, woman."<ref name="Vieira-1">Vieira, Mark A. (2010). ''Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince'', Univ. of California Press. pp. 70–71</ref> 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 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".<ref name="Vieira-1" /> Although she expected to work with Stiller on her first film,<ref name="Wollstein1994" /> she was cast in ''[[Torrent (1926 film)|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 a peasant girl turned singer, opposite [[Ricardo Cortez]].<ref name="Katchmer1991" /><ref name="WalkerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer1980" /> ''Torrent'' was a hit, and, despite its cool reception by the trade press,<ref name="Jacobs2008" /> Garbo's performance was well received.<ref name="Variety-Torrent" /><ref name="HallHadaunt1926" />

[[File:Flesh and the Devil with John Gilbert.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|Garbo in ''[[Flesh and the Devil]]'' (1926) with [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]]]]

Garbo's success in her first American film led Thalberg to cast her in a similar role in ''[[The Temptress (1926 film)|The Temptress]]'' (1926), based on another Ibáñez novel. In this, her second film, she played opposite the popular star [[Antonio Moreno]]<ref name="Resto2008" /> but was given top billing. Her mentor Stiller, who had persuaded her to take the part, was assigned to direct.<ref name="Thomsen1997p129" /> 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)<ref name="Flamini1994" /> and Stiller, ''The Temptress'' was a harrowing experience. Stiller, who spoke little English, had difficulty adapting to the studio system<ref name="Biery1928c-Stiller-artist" /> and did not get on with Moreno,<ref name="Golden2001" /> was fired by Thalberg and replaced by [[Fred Niblo]]. Re-shooting ''The Temptress'' was expensive, and even though it became one of the top-grossing films of the 1926–1927 season,{{sfn|Vieira|2009|p=67}} it was the only Garbo film of the period to lose money.<ref name="Koszarski1994" /> However, Garbo received rave reviews,<ref name="Brown1965" /><ref name="ConwayMcGregorRicci1968p51" /><ref name="Zierold1969p164" /><ref name="HallMorduant1926" /> and MGM had a new star.{{sfn|Vieira|2009|p=67}}{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=108}}

[[File:Garbo - Gilbert - publicity.jpg|upright=0.8|thumb|Garbo with [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]] in ''[[A Woman of Affairs]]'' (1928)]]
After her lightning ascent, Garbo made eight more silent films, and all were hits.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=568–570}} She starred in three of them with the leading man [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]].{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=124–125}} About their first movie, ''[[Flesh and the Devil]]'' (1926), silent film expert [[Kevin Brownlow]] states that "she gave a more erotic performance than Hollywood had ever seen."<ref name="TCMBrownlow">{{Cite video |title=Garbo |year=2005 |last=Brownlow |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Brownlow |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |medium=Television production |minutes=13:00–14:00}}</ref> Their on-screen chemistry soon translated into an off-camera romance, and by the end of the production, they began living together.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=121}} 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 was a sensation."{{sfn|Vieira|2009|p=69}} 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]].{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=193}} 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."{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=220}}

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 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."<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Artists |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/02/27/120227crat_atlarge_denby |date=27 February 2012 |first=David |last=Denby |author-link=David Denby (film critic) |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |pages=74–78 |access-date=20 October 2012 |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=20 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020005430/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/02/27/120227crat_atlarge_denby |url-status=live }}</ref>

During this period, Garbo began to require unusual conditions during 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."{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=301–320}}

Despite her status as a star of silent films,{{Sfn|Crafton|1999|pp=495–496|ps=, "In December 1929, according to the volume of ''[[Photoplay]]'' fan mail&nbsp;... Garbo remained the leading female star."}} the studio feared that her Swedish accent might impair her work in sound, and delayed the shift for as long as possible.{{Sfn|Crafton|1999|p=295}}<ref name="Limbacher1968p219" /> MGM itself was the last Hollywood studio to convert to sound,{{Sfn|Crafton|1999|pp=206–207}} and Garbo's last silent film, ''[[The Kiss (1929 film)|The Kiss]]'' (1929), was also the studio's.{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=100}} Despite the fears, Garbo became one of the biggest box-office draws of the next decade.

===1930–1939: Transition to sound and continued success===
[[File:Greta Garbo in a publicity image for "Anna Christie".jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.8|Garbo in her first sound film ''[[Anna Christie (1930 English-language film)|Anna Christie]]'' (1930).]]
In late 1929, MGM cast Garbo in ''[[Anna Christie (1930 English-language film)|Anna Christie]]'' (1930), a film adaptation of the [[Anna Christie|1922 play]] by [[Eugene O'Neill]], her first speaking role. The screenplay 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.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=111}} Her performance received positive reviews; [[Mordaunt Hall]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' remarked that Garbo 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."<ref name="hall">{{cite news |last=Hall |first=Mordaunt |author-link=Mordaunt Hall |date=March 15, 1930 |title=The Screen; Miss Garbo's First Talker |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F07E0DE1139E03ABC4D52DFB566838B629EDE |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 7, 2014 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427234102/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F07E0DE1139E03ABC4D52DFB566838B629EDE |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 film)|Romance]]'' (1930). After filming ended, Garbo—along with a different director and cast—filmed a [[German language|German-language]] version of ''[[Anna Christie (1930 German-language film)|Anna Christie]]'' that was released in December 1930.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=570}} The film's success certified Garbo's successful transition to [[Sound film|talkies]]. In her follow-up film, ''Romance'', she portrayed an [[Italian opera]] star, opposite [[Lewis Stone]]. She was paired opposite [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]] in ''[[Inspiration (1931 film)|Inspiration]]'' (1931), and her profile was used to boost the career of 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 [[Mata Hari|World War I German spy]] in the lavish production of ''[[Mata Hari (1931 film)|Mata Hari]]'' (1931), opposite [[Ramón Novarro]]. When the film was released, it "caused panic, with police reserves required to keep the waiting mob in order."<ref>qtd in {{harvnb|Swenson|1997|p=266}}</ref> The following year, she played a [[Russia]]n ballerina in ''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|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 was dubbed "the greatest money-making machine ever put on screen".{{sfn|NYTimes|1990}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=244}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=284}}{{Inflation-fn|US}} Garbo's close friend [[Mercedes de Acosta]] then penned a screenplay for her to portray [[Joan of Arc]],{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=269–270}} 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.<ref>qtd in {{harvnb|Swenson|1997|p=244}}</ref> After appearing in ''[[As You Desire Me (film)|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.

[[File:Greta Garbo - 1936.jpg|right|thumb|upright=0.8|In ''Camille'' (1936)]]

After nearly a year of negotiations, Garbo agreed to renew her contract with MGM on the condition that she would star in ''[[Queen Christina (film)|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 (actor)|John Gilbert]]. The studio balked at the idea of casting Gilbert, fearing his declining career would hurt the film's box-office, but Garbo prevailed.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=183}}{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=181}} ''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 the scenes in which Garbo disguised herself as a man and kissed a female co-star.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=572–573}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=316}}

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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=572–573}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=316}} 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 the United States. In the midst of the [[Great Depression in the United States|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 film)|Anna Karenina]]'' (1935), in which she played another of her renowned roles.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|pp=207–210}} Her performance won her 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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=172, 571}} Still, its profit was significantly diminished because of Garbo's exorbitant salary.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=216}}

Garbo selected [[George Cukor]]'s romantic drama ''[[Camille (1936 film)|Camille]]'' (1936) as her next project. Thalberg cast her opposite [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]] and former co-star, [[Lionel Barrymore]]. Cukor carefully crafted Garbo's portrayal of Marguerite Gautier, 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]].<ref name="Bret" />{{rp|272}} 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, was more profound than for [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]], who died earlier that same year.<ref name="Bret">Bret, David. ''Greta Garbo: Divine Star'', Robson Press (2012)</ref>{{rp|272}} 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Richard |title=The Rough Guide to Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6He0BgAAQBAJ&dq=camille+1936+%22tragedy%22&pg=PA118 |page=118 |isbn=978-1-84836-125-6 |date= 2007 |publisher=Rough Guides UK |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406181818/https://books.google.com/books?id=6He0BgAAQBAJ&dq=camille+1936+%22tragedy%22&pg=PA118 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Modern Screen 1937 Conquest.jpg|left|thumb|Garbo and [[Charles Boyer]] in ''[[Conquest (1937 film)|Conquest]]'' (1937)]]

Garbo's follow-up project was [[Clarence Brown]]'s lavish production of ''[[Conquest (1937 film)|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.{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=316}} When her contract expired soon thereafter, she returned briefly to Sweden. On 3 May 1938, Garbo 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 (magazine article)|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, 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 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.

===1941–1948: Last work and retirement===

[[File:twofaced woman.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Garbo and [[Melvyn Douglas]] in ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]'' (1941)]]

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 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.{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=573}} Garbo referred to the film as "my grave".{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955c|p=129}} ''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 the negative reviews of ''Two-Faced Woman'', she did not intend to retire at first.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=381}}<!-- {{Sfn|Vieira|1994|p=267}} (ref does not exist) --> But her films depended on the European market, and when it fell through because of the war, finding a vehicle was problematic for MGM.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=281}} Garbo signed a one-picture deal in 1942 to make ''The Girl from Leningrad'', but the project quickly dissolved.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}} She still thought she would continue when the war was over,{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=268}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=383}} though she 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."{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=270}} 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."{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=270}} George Cukor, director of ''Two-Faced Woman'', and often blamed for its failure, said: "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."{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=383}}

Still, Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with producer [[Walter Wanger]], who had produced ''Queen Christina'', to shoot a picture based on [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]'s ''La Duchesse de Langeais''. [[Max Ophüls]] was slated to adapt and direct.<ref name="Reid2006p44" /><ref name="Kellow2004p338" /><ref name="ForrestKoos2002p151-152" /> She made several [[screen test]]s, 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.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955c|p=130}} 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]].{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=426}} Parts of the footage were included in the 2005 [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM]] documentary ''Garbo''.<ref name="TCM-GarboDoc" />

In 1949, she was offered the role of fictional silent-film star Norma Desmond in ''[[Sunset Boulevard (film)|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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Susman |first1=Gary |title='Sunset Blvd.': 15 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About the Hollywood Classic |url=https://www.moviefone.com/2015/08/10/sunset-boulevard-facts/ |website=moviefone |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=25 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225103203/https://www.moviefone.com/2015/08/10/sunset-boulevard-facts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

She was offered many roles both in the 1940s and throughout her retirement years but rejected all but a few of them. In the few instances when she did accept them, the slightest problem led her to drop out.{{Sfn|Vieira|2005|p=271}} 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&nbsp;... I really wanted to live another life."{{Sfn|Broman|1990|p=271}}

== Public persona ==
From 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.{{sfn|Bainbridge|1955a|p=12}}<ref name="NYT-GarboBack-smokinglounge" /> Nor did she ever appear at Oscar ceremonies, even when she was nominated.{{Sfn|Krutzen|1992|p=46}} Her aversion to publicity and the press was undeniably genuine,{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=129, 156–157, 243}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=196}} and exasperating to the studio at first. In an interview in 1928, she explained that her desire for privacy began when she 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."<ref>Biery, April 1928</ref><ref name=":0" /> The artist [[James Montgomery Flagg]] said in 1933{{Sfn|Gilbert|1935|pp=16, 19}} 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.{{Sfn|Robinson|2007|pp=150–151}} In 1937, in 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..."<ref>{{Cite web |title='I go nowhere, I see no one': Garbo letters reveal lonely life of film icon {{!}} Greta Garbo {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/05/garbo-letters-for-sale-echo-lonely-life-of-film-icon |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=amp.theguardian.com |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406142842/https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/05/garbo-letters-for-sale-echo-lonely-life-of-film-icon |url-status=live }}</ref> 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..."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Garbo Greta Archive of over 65 letters to her close friend 251938 758781 |url=https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/LotDetails?salename=GARBO%2C-GRETA.-Archive-of-over-65-letters-to-her-close-friend-2519%2B%2B%2B%2B%2B%2B38%2B-%2B%2B758781&saleno=2519&lotNo=38&refNo=758781 |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=catalogue.swanngalleries.com |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406142844/https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/LotDetails?salename=GARBO,-GRETA.-Archive-of-over-65-letters-to-her-close-friend-2519%2B%2B%2B%2B%2B%2B38%2B-%2B%2B758781&saleno=2519&lotNo=38&refNo=758781 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Because Garbo 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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=179}}{{Sfn|Krutzen|1992|p=46}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=196–197}} In spite of her strenuous efforts to avoid publicity, Garbo paradoxically became one of the twentieth century's most publicized women.{{sfn|NYTimes|1990}}{{sfn|Barnes|1990}} She is closely associated with a line from ''Grand Hotel'', one which the [[American Film Institute]] in 2005 voted the [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes|30th-most memorable movie quote of all time]],<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes |url=http://www.afi.com/100years/quotes.aspx |access-date=24 July 2010 |archive-date=15 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415022946/http://www.afi.com/100Years/quotes.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> "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.<ref name="NYT-Obit-let-alone">{{Harvnb|NYTimes|1990}}. A declaration often attributed to her was, "I want to be alone." Actually, she said, "I want to be let alone."</ref>{{efn|For example, in ''[[Love (1927 American film)|Love]]'' (1927), a title card reads, "I like to be alone"; in ''[[The Single Standard]]'' (1929), her character says: "I am walking alone because I ''want'' to be alone"; in the same film, she sails to the South Seas with her lover on a boat called the All Alone; in ''Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)'' (1931), she says to a suitor: "This time, I rise&nbsp;... and fall&nbsp;... alone"; in ''Inspiration'' (1931), she tells a fickle lover: "I just want to be alone for a little while"; in ''Mata Hari'' (1931), she says to her new amour: "I never look ahead. By next spring, I shall probably be&nbsp;... quite alone." By the early 1930s, the motif had become indelibly linked to Garbo's public and private personae.<ref name="NYT-Obit-let-alone" /><ref name="Shapiro2006">{{Cite book |editor-first=Fred R. |editor-last=Shapiro |title=The Yale Book of Quotations |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300107982 |url-access=registration |access-date=24 July 2010 |year=2006 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-10798-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300107982/page/299 299]}}</ref> It is lampooned in ''Ninotchka'' (1939) when emissaries from Russia ask her: "Do you want to be alone, comrade?" "No", she says bluntly. But about her private life, she later remarked: "I never said, 'I want to be alone'; I only said, 'I want to be ''let'' alone.' There is a world of difference."<ref name="NYT-Obit-let-alone" /><ref name="Shapiro2006" />}} According to a 1955 piece in [[Life (magazine)|LIFE magazine]], Garbo explained that she'd said: "I want to be ''let'' alone", not "I want to be alone".<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Katz |first2=Brigit |title=The Profound Loneliness of Greta Garbo |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/profound-loneliness-greta-garbo-180967417/ |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406210252/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/profound-loneliness-greta-garbo-180967417/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=GarboForever - The 'I vant to be alone' quote |url=http://www.garboforever.com/I_want_to_be_alone.htm |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=www.garboforever.com |archive-date=8 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408070128/http://www.garboforever.com/I_want_to_be_alone.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Greta Garbo - Press Articles (Life - January 1955) |url=http://www.garboforever.com/1955_Life-1.htm |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=www.garboforever.com |archive-date=31 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331211247/http://www.garboforever.com/1955_Life-1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

'''Fashion and personal style'''

After starring in ''[[Torrent (1926 film)|Torrent]]'' (1926), she became known as "the [[Art Deco]] [[Diva]]".<ref name=":0" /> She favored men's shoes and clothes<ref name=":3" /> and her style has been described as "trench coat, simple shoes, shirts, [[Slim-fit pants|cigarette pants]], [[slouch hat]] and big sunglasses."<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=To die for: Greta Garbo |url=http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8010679/To-die-for-Greta-Garbo.html |access-date=8 September 2021 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085723/http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8010679/To-die-for-Greta-Garbo.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Garbo has been credited with popularizing the "slouchy hat".<ref>{{cite book |last1=McEvoy |first1=Anne |title=Costume and Fashion Source Books: The 1920s and 1930s |date=2009 |publisher=Chelsea House |location=New York |page=56}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
=== Retirement ===
[[File:Greta Garbo in 1950.jpg|thumb|Garbo signing her US citizenship papers in February 1951]]

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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=5, 57, 156–158 passim}} Contrary to myth, from the beginning she had many friends and acquaintances with whom she socialized and travelled,{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=244, 508–509 passim}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994}} 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 a comeback was "I have made enough faces", as she once said to [[David Niven]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Chris |date=2021-08-29 |title=From the archive: looking back at Greta Garbo's private world, 1979 |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/29/from-the-observer-archive-i-want-to-be-alone-a-greta-garbo-retrospective-1979 |access-date=2023-07-09 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=10 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710000321/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/29/from-the-observer-archive-i-want-to-be-alone-a-greta-garbo-retrospective-1979 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Garbo was often perplexed about what to do and how to spend her time, always struggling with her many eccentricities{{Sfn|Paris|1994}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997}} and her life-long melancholy and moodiness.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=8–9, 107–108, 167, 329–330, 506–511 passim}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=87, 91, 115, 143 passim}} ("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."{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=417, 445}}) As she approached her sixtieth birthday in 1965, she told 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."{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=526}} She told another friend in 1971, "I suppose I suffer from very deep [[Depression (mood)|depression]]."{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=506}} One biographer claims that she could have been [[Bipolar disorder|bipolar]]. "I am very happy one moment, the next there is nothing left for me", she said in 1933.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=506}}

Beginning in 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 [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]], [[Georges Rouault|Rouault]], [[Wassily Kandinsky|Kandinsky]], [[Pierre Bonnard|Bonnard]]{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=426–427, 530}} and [[Alexej von Jawlensky|Jawlensky]].{{sfn|Broman|1990|p=227}} Her art collection was worth millions of dollars when she died in 1990.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=344}}

On 9 February 1951, she became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States,<ref name="WhoLLC1983">{{Cite book |title=Who's Who of American Women, 1983–1984 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cz2ppa_YfZ8C |access-date=24 July 2010 |date= 1983 |publisher=[[Marquis Who's Who]] |location=Berkeley Heights, NJ |isbn=978-0-8379-0413-9 |page=279}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> and bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street in [[Manhattan]] in 1953,<ref name="Kalins_Wise1968">{{Cite journal |last=Kalins Wise |first=Dorothy |title=Appraising the Most Expensive Apartment Houses in the City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=meECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18 |access-date=24 July 2010 |date=20 May 1968 |journal=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |volume=1 |issue=7 |publisher=New York Media |page=18 |issn=0028-7369 |editor-first=Norman |editor-last=McGrath |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150303/https://books.google.com/books?id=meECAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> where she lived for the rest of her life.<ref name="WhoLLC1983" /> Her New York apartment buzzer was identified by a solitary G and the interior was a "light and airy study in pink".<ref name=":2" /> In order to protect her privacy, she preferred being addressed as "Miss [Harriet] Brown".<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Conrad |first=Peter |date=2022-01-02 |title=Garbo by Robert Gottlieb review – distant darling of the silver screen |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/02/garbo-by-robert-gottlieb-review-distant-darling-of-the-silver-screen |access-date=2023-07-10 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=10 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710001113/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/02/garbo-by-robert-gottlieb-review-distant-darling-of-the-silver-screen |url-status=live }}</ref> Her close friends were only allowed to call her Miss Garbo or G.G.; if they called her Greta, she wouldn't respond.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Garbo Next Door |url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2000/4/the-garbo-next-door |access-date=2023-07-29 |website=Vanity Fair {{!}} The Complete Archive |language=en-US |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729205634/https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2000/4/the-garbo-next-door |url-status=live }}</ref>

Garbo was a dinner guest at the [[White House]] on 13 November 1963, just nine days before the [[assassination of President Kennedy]].<ref name="Pitts 2007 205–206">{{cite book |first=David |last=Pitts |title=Jack and Lem: John F. Kennedy and Lem Billings: The Untold Story of an Extraordinary Friendship |location=New York |publisher=[[Carroll & Graf]] |year=2007 |pages=205–206 |isbn=978-0-7867-1989-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |oclc=123539117 |access-date=20 August 2019 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150215/https://books.google.com/books?id=FZhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |url-status=live }}</ref> She spent the night at the Washington, D.C. home of philanthropist<ref name="latimes/me-mahoney21">{{cite news |last1=Rourke |first1=Mary |title=Florence Mahoney, 103; Health-Care Activist Pushed Institute on Aging |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-21-me-mahoney21-story.html |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=21 December 2002}}</ref> Florence Stephenson Mahoney.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=468–469}}{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=519–520}} Garbo's niece reported that Garbo had always spoken of it as a "magical evening".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/About-Us/News-and-Press/Press-Releases/JFKs-Missing-Tooth-Found.aspx |title=JFK's Missing 'Tooth' Found |work=[[John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum]] |date=10 May 2000 |access-date=18 May 2019 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211704/http://www.jfklibrary.org/About-Us/News-and-Press/Press-Releases/JFKs-Missing-Tooth-Found.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

Italian film director [[Luchino Visconti]] allegedly attempted to bring Garbo back to the screen in 1969 with the small part of [[Maria Sophie of Bavaria|Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples]] in his adaptation of [[Marcel Proust|Proust]]'s ''[[In Search of Lost Time|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."{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=460}} Claims that Garbo was interested in the part cannot be substantiated.{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=541}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=460}}

In 1971, Garbo vacationed in Southern France at the summer home of her close friend Baroness Cécile [[de Rothschild]]{{Sfn|Vickers|2002}} who introduced her to [[Samuel Adams Green]], an art collector and curator in New York City.<ref name="TelgObit">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/8391579/Sam-Green.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/8391579/Sam-Green.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Sam Green – Obituary |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=18 March 2011 |access-date=15 December 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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 the tapes to friends.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=526}} In his last will and testament, Green bequeathed all of the tapes in 2011 to the film archives at [[Wesleyan University]].<ref name="WaStars">{{cite web |url=http://warholstars.org/sam_green_obituary.html |title=Sam Green Obituary |work=warholstars.org |access-date=15 December 2012 |archive-date=20 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120054057/http://warholstars.org/sam_green_obituary.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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."<ref name=":2" />

Although she was increasingly withdrawn in her final years,{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=506–511}} 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.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=537–538}}

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 a sport for photographers, the media, admirers, and curious New Yorkers,{{Sfn|Paris|1994|pp=495–505}} but she strictly maintained her privacy and her elusive mystique followed her to the end.

[[Norwegians|Norwegian]] actress [[Liv Ullmann]], who was dubbed "The New Greta Garbo",<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |date=2013-12-12 |title=A Filmmaker's Hold on His Muse |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/movies/liv-and-ingmar-documents-a-relationships-highs-and-lows.html |access-date=2023-07-08 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=28 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528204302/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/movies/liv-and-ingmar-documents-a-relationships-highs-and-lows.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and played [[Anna Christie]] on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1977,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Clive |date=1977-04-15 |title=Theater: Liv Ullmann's 'Anna Christie' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/15/archives/new-jersey-weekly-theater-liv-ullmanns-anna-christie-quinteros.html |access-date=2023-07-08 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=17 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217192718/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/15/archives/new-jersey-weekly-theater-liv-ullmanns-anna-christie-quinteros.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 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."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liv Ullmann: 'I ran after Greta Garbo in the street. She outpaced me' {{!}} Movies {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/24/liv-ullmann-i-ran-after-greta-garbo-in-the-street-she-outpaced-me |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=amp.theguardian.com |archive-date=8 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708221241/https://amp.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/24/liv-ullmann-i-ran-after-greta-garbo-in-the-street-she-outpaced-me |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Relationships ===
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 (actor)|John Gilbert]], with whom she lived intermittently in 1926 and 1927.{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=122–127, 129–135}} Soon after their romance began, Gilbert began helping her develop acting skills on the set and teaching her how to behave like a star, socialize at parties, and deal with studio bosses.<ref name="Gross">Gross, Michael. ''New York'' magazine, "Garbo's Last Days", 21 May 1990, pp. 39–46</ref> They co-starred again in three more hits: ''Love'' (1927), ''[[A Woman of Affairs]]'' (1928), and ''[[Queen Christina (film)|Queen Christina]]'' (1933). Gilbert allegedly proposed to Garbo numerous times and she finally accepted, but backed out just before the wedding.<ref name="Gross" />{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=38}}{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=125}} "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 the boss." In later years when asked about Gilbert, Garbo said "I can't remember what I ever saw in him."<ref name="Gross" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=GarboForever Garbo Story by Ava Gardner |url=http://www.garboforever.com/Garbo_Stories-02.htm |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=www.garboforever.com |archive-date=27 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927105024/http://www.garboforever.com/Garbo_Stories-02.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1937, Garbo met [[Leopold Stokowski]], then conductor of 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.{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=368–382}}{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=349–351, 353–355}} In his diary, [[Erich Maria Remarque]] discusses a liaison with Garbo in 1941,{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=414–415}} and in his memoir, [[Cecil Beaton]] described an affair with her in 1947 and 1948.{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=457–460}}{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=404–409}} In 1941, she met the Russian-born millionaire George Schlee, who was introduced to her by his wife, fashion designer [[Valentina (fashion designer)|Valentina]]. Nicholas Turner, Garbo's close friend for 33 years, said that, after she bought an apartment in the same building, "Garbo moved in and took Schlee from Valentina right away."<ref name="Gross" /> Schlee would divide his time between the two, becoming Garbo's close companion and advisor until his death in 1964.{{sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=428–504}}{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=412–552}}

Garbo once said: "If I were ever to love anyone, it would be [[Mauritz Stiller]]."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Chris |date=2019-10-27 |title=From the archive: the story of how Greta Garbo became a star |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/27/from-the-archive-the-story-of-how-greta-garbo-became-a-star-1970 |access-date=2023-07-10 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=10 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710001341/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/oct/27/from-the-archive-the-story-of-how-greta-garbo-became-a-star-1970 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Recent biographers and others have speculated that because it can be assumed she had intimate relationships with women as well as men, Garbo was [[Bisexuality|bisexual]], possibly even "predominantly [[lesbian]]".{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=249: "Garbo was technically bisexual, predominantly lesbian, and increasingly asexual&nbsp;..."}}<ref>"I think it is fair to say that a same-sex relationship was her obvious choice, despite numerous affairs with men." {{Cite news |last=Daum |first=Raymond |title=The Private Garbo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/07/books/l-the-private-garbo-747495.html |access-date=9 October 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=7 May 1995 |archive-date=12 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112021058/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/07/books/l-the-private-garbo-747495.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Sfn|Vickers|1994}}{{sfn|Vieira|2005|pp=134–136 passim}}{{sfn|Schanke|2003|pp=103–113 passim}}<ref>"Spirit of Garbo". Laramie, Moon (2018). Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd. {{ISBN|978-1-912622-02-3}}, p. 43.</ref>}} In 1927, Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actress [[Lilyan Tashman]], and they may have had an affair, according to some writers.{{sfn|Paris|1994|pp=251–255}}{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=26}} Silent film star [[Louise Brooks]] stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Louise Brooks: Portrait d'une anti star |isbn=978-2-85940-012-5 |first1=Louise |last1=Brooks |author-link=Louise Brooks |year=1976 |publisher=Phébus |location=Paris |first2=Roland |last2=Jaccard |language=fr |trans-title=Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-star}}</ref>

In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and acknowledged lesbian [[Mercedes de Acosta]], whom she met through [[Salka Viertel]], and, according to Garbo's and de Acosta's biographers, began a sporadic and volatile romance.{{sfn|Schanke|2003}}<ref>De Acosta, a [[theosophist]], was interested in esoteric [[spirituality]]. According to biographer Moon Laramie, her relationship with de Acosta prompted Garbo's interest in both theosophy and the occult."Spirit of Garbo". Laramie, Moon (2018). Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd. {{ISBN|978-1-912622-02-3}}, pp. 129–132.</ref>
The two remained friends—with ups and downs—for almost 30 years, during which time Garbo wrote de Acosta 181 letters, cards, and telegrams, now at the [[Rosenbach Museum and Library]] in Philadelphia.{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|pp=381, 511}}{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=264}} Garbo's family, which controls her estate,{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=559}} has made only 87 of these items publicly available.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |title=Letters Push Garbo Slightly into View |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/18/arts/letters-push-garbo-slightly-into-view.html |access-date=7 May 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=18 April 2000 |archive-date=18 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618090339/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/18/arts/letters-push-garbo-slightly-into-view.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2005, [[Mimi Pollak]]'s estate released 60 letters Garbo had written to her in their long correspondence. Several letters suggest she may have had romantic feelings for Pollak for many years. After learning of Pollak's pregnancy in 1930, for example, Garbo wrote: "We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together."<ref name="Observer20050910">{{Cite news |title=Lonely Garbo's love secret is exposed |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/11/film.filmnews |date=10 September 2005 |first=Alex Duval |last=Smith |work=[[The Observer]] |location=London |access-date=17 November 2011 |archive-date=12 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912145436/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1567211,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1975, she wrote a poem about not being able to touch the hand of her friend with whom she might have been walking through life.{{Sfn|Swenson|1997|p=542}}

== Death ==
[[File:Greta Garbo gravestone.jpg|upright=0.6|thumb|Garbo's grave at [[Skogskyrkogården]] Cemetery]]
Garbo was successfully treated for [[breast cancer]] in 1984.{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=549}}<ref name="Gibson2009">{{Cite book |author=Greg Gibson |title=It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsKnJf6PBFsC&pg=PA20 |access-date=24 July 2010 |date=2009 |publisher=FT Press |location=Upper Saddle River, NJ |isbn=978-0-13-713746-6 |page=20 |quote=The list of famous women who have had breast cancer&nbsp;... |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150656/https://books.google.com/books?id=QsKnJf6PBFsC&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Towards the end of her life, only Garbo's closest friends knew she was receiving six-hour [[Kidney dialysis|dialysis]] treatments three times a week at [[The Rogosin Institute]] in [[Weill Cornell Medical Center|New York Hospital]]. A photograph appeared in the media in early 1990, showing Koger assisting Garbo, who was walking with a cane, into the hospital.

Garbo died on [[Easter Sunday]], 15 April 1990, aged 84, in the hospital, as a result of [[pneumonia]] and [[renal failure]].{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=541}} Daum later claimed that towards the end, she also suffered from [[gastrointestinal ailment|gastrointestinal]] and [[periodontal]] ailments.

Garbo was [[Cremation|cremated]] and her ashes were interred nine years later in 1999 at [[Skogskyrkogården]] Cemetery just south of her native Stockholm.<ref name="Ohlsen2004">{{Cite book |first=Becky |last=Ohlsen |title=Stockholm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=skJHrgPELxUC&pg=PA86 |access-date=24 July 2010 |year=2004 |publisher=Lonely Planet |location=Melbourne |isbn=978-1-74104-172-9 |page=86 |quote=The Unesco World Heritage-listed graveyard Skogskyrkogården ... is also known as the final resting place of Hollywood actress Greta Garbo |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150657/https://books.google.com/books?id=skJHrgPELxUC&pg=PA86 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Garbo made numerous investments, primarily in stocks and bonds, and left her entire estate of $32{{nbsp}}million ({{Inflation|US|32042429|1990|fmt=eq|cursign=$|r=-6}}) to her niece.{{Sfn|Paris|1994|p=540}}

== Legacy ==
Garbo was an international movie star during the late silent era and the "[[Golden Age of Hollywood|Golden Age]]" of Hollywood who became a screen icon.{{sfn|Paris|1994|p=4}}{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=6}} For most of her career, Garbo was the highest-paid star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making her for many years the studio's "premier prestige star".{{sfn|Vieira|2005|p=7}}{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=406}} After her death, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' published an obituary calling her "the most alluring, vibrant and yet aloof character to grace the motion-picture screen."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greta Garbo |url=https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/greta-garbo/ |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en |archive-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517143406/https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/greta-garbo/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The April 1990 ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' obituary said that "at the peak of her popularity, she was a virtual cult figure."{{sfn|Barnes|1990}}

Garbo possessed a subtlety and naturalism in her acting that set her apart from other actors and actresses of the period.<ref name="vance">Vance, Jeffrey (2005). ''The Mysterious Lady'', The Garbo Silents Collection: Audio commentary, DVD; Disk 1/3. (TCM Archives.)</ref> About her work in silents, film critic [[Ty Burr]] said: "This was a new kind of actor—not the stage actor who had to play to the far seats, but someone who could just look and with her eyes literally go from rage to sorrow in just a close-up."<ref name="AMCBurr">{{Cite video |title=Greta Garbo: A Lone Star |year=2001 |author=Cole, Steve (director) |publisher=[[American Movie Classics]] |medium=Television production |minutes=10:57–11:07.}}</ref>

Film historian [[Jeffrey Vance]] said that Garbo communicated her characters' innermost feelings through her movement, gestures, and, most importantly, her eyes. With the slightest movement of them, he argues, she subtly conveyed complex attitudes and feelings toward other characters and the truth of the situation. "She doesn't act," said ''Camille'' co-star [[Rex O'Malley]], "she lives her roles."{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=357}} [[Clarence Brown]], who directed seven of Garbo's pictures, told an interviewer, "Garbo has something behind the eyes that you couldn't see until you photographed it in close-up. You could see thought. If she had to look at one person with jealousy, and another with love, she didn't have to change her expression. You could see it in her eyes as she looked from one to the other. And nobody else has been able to do that on screen."<ref>{{Cite news |title=A Century After Her Birth, Greta Garbo's Allure Lives On |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/10/21/a-century-after-her-birth-greta-garbos-allure-lives-on/ |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=27 October 2005 |first=Swanson |last=Stevenson |access-date=27 September 2013 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002144552/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-10-21/features/0510200317_1_greta-garbo-gosta-berling-mauritz-stiller |url-status=live }}</ref> Director [[George Sidney]] adds: "You could call it underplaying, but in underplaying, she overplayed everyone else."<ref name="AMCSidney">{{Cite video |title=Greta Garbo: A Lone Star |year=2001 |author=Cole, Steve (director) |publisher=[[American Movie Classics]] |medium=Television production |minutes=11:26–11:30.}}</ref>

Many critics have said that few of Garbo's 24 Hollywood films are artistically exceptional, and that many are simply bad.{{sfn|Vieira|2005|pp=6–8}} It has been said, however, that her commanding and magnetic performances usually overcome the weaknesses of plot and dialogue.{{sfn|Vieira|2005|pp=6–8}}{{sfn|Barnes|1990}} As one biographer put it, "All moviegoers demanded of a Garbo production was Greta Garbo."{{sfn|Swenson|1997|p=282}}

Film historian [[Ephraim Katz]]: "Of all the stars who have ever fired the imaginations of audiences, none has quite projected a magnetism and a mystique equal to Garbo. 'The Divine', the 'dream princess of eternity', the '[[Sarah Bernhardt]] of films', are only a few of the superlatives writers used in describing her over the years&nbsp;... She played heroines that were at once sensual and pure, superficial and profound, suffering and hopeful, world-weary and life-inspiring."<ref>''The Film Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry''{{Cite book |first=Ephraim |last=Katz |author-link=Ephraim Katz |title=The Film Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry |year=1979 |edition=1st |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell Co |location=New York |page=465 |isbn=978-0-690-01204-0}}</ref>

American film actress [[Bette Davis]]: "Her 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."<ref>{{Cite book |first=Bette |last=Davis |title=The Lonely Life |year=1990 |orig-date=1962 |publisher=Berkley Books |location=New York |page=116 |isbn=978-0-425-12350-8}}</ref>

Mexican film actress [[Dolores del Río]]: "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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Linda |title=Dolores del Río: Beauty in Light and Shade |year=2013 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=153 |isbn=978-0-8047-8407-8}}</ref>

American film director [[George Cukor]]: "She had a talent that few actresses or actors possess. In close-ups, she gave the impression, the illusion of great movement. She would move her head just a little bit, and the whole screen would come alive, like a strong breeze that made itself felt."<ref>{{Cite book |first=Robert Emmet |last=Long |title=George Cukor: Interviews |year=2001 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson |series=Conversations with Filmmakers |page=47 |isbn=978-1-57806-387-1}}</ref>

American film actor [[Gregory Peck]]: "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."<ref>Peck, Gregory, "Los Angeles Times", November 2000</ref>

American film actress [[Kim Novak]]: "You know, my idol, I idolize Greta Garbo. I just loved her work so much. She was, again, so real. She was not -- to me, she wasn't stylized. You could see any of her work right now. She was just amazing, and what I loved about it also was there was an air of mystery about her work. There was always something more. She didn't give you everything. She held back, and I like that. I probably -- she was my role model."<ref>Larry King Live: Interview with Kim Novak, January 5, 2004</ref>

=== Documentary portrayals ===
Garbo is the subject of several documentaries, including four made in the United States between 1990 and 2005, and one made for the BBC in 1969:
* ''Garbo'' (1969), [[BBC]], written by [[Alexander Walker (critic)]], narrated by [[Joan Crawford]]
* ''The Divine Garbo'' (1990), [[TNT (U.S. TV network)|TNT]], produced by Ellen M. Krass and Susan F. Walker, narrated by [[Glenn Close]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Reviews/Television; A Life of Garbo, Mostly Through Films |first=John J. |last=O'Connor |date=3 December 1990 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/arts/reviews-television-a-life-of-garbo-mostly-through-films.html |access-date=19 August 2011 |archive-date=31 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531001737/http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/arts/reviews-television-a-life-of-garbo-mostly-through-films.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''Greta Garbo: The Mysterious Lady'' (1998), [[Biography Channel]], narrated by [[Peter Graves]]<ref>{{cite web|title={{-'}}Biography' Greta Garbo: The Mysterious Lady|publisher=Internet Movie Database|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411067/combined|access-date=6 August 2011|archive-date=4 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904070826/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411067/combined|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Greta Garbo: A Lone Star'' (2001), [[AMC (TV channel)|AMC]]<ref>{{Cite news |title='Garbo' Paints a Full Portrait of Star |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=4 September 2011 |first=Steven |last=Linan |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-04-ca-41799-story.html |access-date=16 August 2011 |archive-date=15 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715040211/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/sep/04/entertainment/ca-41799 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''Garbo'' (2005), [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM]], directed by [[Kevin Brownlow]], narrated by [[Julie Christie]]<ref>{{cite news |title=TCM offers close-up of silent star Garbo |date=6 September 2005 |agency=Associated Press |url=http://archive.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/09/06/tcm_offers_close_upof_silent_star_garbo/ |access-date=8 January 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728122208/http://articles.boston.com/2005-09-06/ae/29221217_1_kevin-brownlow-greta-garbo-mysterious-star |archive-date=28 July 2012}}</ref>
* ''Garbo: Where Did You Go?'' (2024), written by [[Lorna Tucker]]<ref name="SF/garbo-go">{{cite web |title=garbo-where-did-you-go |url=https://www.swedishfilm.com/en/movies/g/garbo-where-did-you-go/ |website=swedishfilm.com |access-date=15 May 2025}}</ref>

=== In art and literature ===
{{Multiple image
| image1            = Greta Garbo Memorial 2006-04-11.jpg
| alt1              = Drawing of Garbo in a city street
| caption1          = Greta Garbo Memorial by Tomas Qvarsebo in Stockholm
| image2            = Greta Garbo, Södermalm.JPG
| alt2              = Bronze bust of Garbo
| caption2          = Sculpture of Garbo in Stockholm
| image3            = A374, Greta Garbo star, Hollywood Walk of Fame, California, USA, 1991.JPG
| alt3              = Star shaped tile with Greta Garbo's name
| caption3          = Garbo's star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]
| image4            = Stamps of Romania, 2005-004.jpg
| alt4              = Postage stamp with a portrait of Garbo
| caption4          = Garbo on a 2005 Romanian postal stamp
| total_width       = 320
| perrow            = 2
}}
Garbo has been memorialized in art and literature both during and after her life. Garbo was one of the subjects of French composer [[Charles Koechlin]]'s "Seven Stars Symphony" (1933), which consisted of seven [[Movement (music)|movements]], each dedicated to a Hollywood star.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-16 |title=A fabulous, forgotten French symphony pays tribute to Hollywood stars of yesteryear |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/newsletter/2022-07-16/essential-arts-7-16-2022-essential-arts |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827224719/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/newsletter/2022-07-16/essential-arts-7-16-2022-essential-arts |url-status=live }}</ref>

Author [[Ernest Hemingway]] provided an imaginary portrayal of Garbo in his novel ''[[For Whom the Bell Tolls]]'' (1940): "Maybe it is like the dreams you have when someone you have seen in the cinema comes to your bed at night and is so kind and lovely&nbsp;... He could remember Garbo still&nbsp;... Maybe it was like those dreams the night before the attack on [[Pozoblanco]], and [Garbo] was wearing a soft silky wool sweater when he put his arms around her, and when she leaned forward, and her hair swept forward and over his face, and she said why had he never told her that he loved her when she had loved him all this time? ... and it was as true as though it had happened&nbsp;..."<ref>Sarris, 1998. p. 374</ref>

Garbo was portrayed by [[Betty Comden]] in the film ''[[Garbo Talks]]'' (1984). The plot concerns a dying Garbo fan ([[Anne Bancroft]]) whose last wish is to meet her idol. Her son (played by [[Ron Silver]]) diligently searches for the elusive Garbo, determined to fulfill his mother's wish.

A statue of Greta Garbo titled "Statue of Integrity" by Jón Leifsson sits isolated deep in the forest in [[Härjedalen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.statueofintegrity.se/ |language=Swedish |title=The Statue of Integrity: In Memory of Greta Garbo |work=The Statue of Integrity (official site) |publisher=Fotografiska |accessdate=August 14, 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801103403/http://statueofintegrity.se/ |url-status=dead }} {{cite web |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/statue-of-integrity |title=Greta Garbo Statue of Integrity |author=hrnick |work=Atlas Obscura |accessdate=August 14, 2021 |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814150825/https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/statue-of-integrity |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Cole Porter song "[[You're the Top]]" makes a passing reference to the importance of her salary. Garbo is mentioned in [[The Kinks]]' 1972 song "[[Celluloid Heroes]]" and the 1977 song "[[Right Before Your Eyes]]" by [[Ian Thomas (Canadian musician)|Ian Thomas]], which was covered by [[America (band)|America]] in 1982. Greta Garbo is mentioned in the 1981 [[Kim Carnes]] hit song "[[Bette Davis Eyes]]" and she was the subject of the 1985 [[Freddie Mercury]] song, "[[Living On My Own]]". The 1988 song, "Garbo" by Austrian musician [[Falco (musician)|Falco]] serves as a tribute in the form of a love song. In the 1990 song "[[Vogue (Madonna song)|Vogue]]" by [[Madonna]], Greta Garbo is the first mentioned of a list of stars from Hollywood's [[Classical Hollywood cinema|Golden Age]].

In 2023, notable artist [[William Kentridge]] included a drawing of Garbo in his solo museum exhibition at [[The Broad]] in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amadour |date=2022-12-07 |title=15 Minutes With Visionary Artist William Kentridge |url=https://lamag.com/art/with-a-show-at-the-broad-artist-william-kentridge-talks-hollywood |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles |language=en |archive-date=31 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231213853/https://lamag.com/art/with-a-show-at-the-broad-artist-william-kentridge-talks-hollywood |url-status=live }}</ref>

Pornographic film director [[Peter de Rome]] shot footage of Garbo walking across [[First Avenue (Manhattan)|First Avenue]] that he inserted into his 1974 feature ''[[Adam & Yves]].'' Its presence was explained by having one of the characters recalling how he once saw the elusive star.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagofreepress.com/node/1312|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429193356/http://www.chicagofreepress.com/node/1312|title=Porn Stop - Chicago Free Press|archive-date=29 April 2008|work=chicagofreepress.com|url-status=usurped|access-date=4 January 2016}}</ref><ref name=DeRome1984>{{citation |last=De Rome |first=Peter |year=1984 |title=The erotic world of Peter de Rome |publisher=GMP |isbn=978-0-907040-46-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/eroticworldofpet00dero }}</ref>  The Garbo footage was used without the star's knowledge or permission, and she was not paid for her appearance.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4PnEvNC_F9oC&q=adam+yves+garbo&pg=PA88 |title=Film Facts|access-date=4 January 2016|isbn=9780823079438|last1=Robertson|first1=Patrick|year=2001|publisher=Billboard Books }}</ref>

== Awards and honors ==
Garbo was nominated four times for the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]. In 1930, a performer could receive a single nomination for their work in more than one film. Garbo received her nomination for her work in both ''Anna Christie'' and for ''Romance''.<ref name="Kennedy1999">. The
{{Cite book |first=Matthew |last=Kennedy |title=Marie Dressler: A Biography, With a Listing of Major Stage Performances, a Filmography and a Discography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ahLtE77jYjYC&pg=PA154 |access-date=25 July 2010 |year=1999 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-0520-6 |page=154 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150706/https://books.google.com/books?id=ahLtE77jYjYC&pg=PA154#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=1929–30 Academy Awards Winners and History |url=http://www.filmsite.org/aa29.html |access-date=23 July 2010 |quote=For the first and only time in Academy history, multiple nominations were permitted for individual categories (notice that George Arliss defeated himself in the Best Actor category). [With a change of rules, this would be the last year in which performers could be nominated for roles in more than one film.] |archive-date=29 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829021512/http://www.filmsite.org/aa29.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
She lost out to [[Irving Thalberg]]'s wife, [[Norma Shearer]], who won for ''[[The Divorcee]]''. In 1937, Garbo was nominated for ''Camille'', but [[Luise Rainer]] won for ''[[The Good Earth (film)|The Good Earth]]''. Finally, in 1939, Garbo was nominated for ''Ninotchka'', but again came away empty-handed. ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone With the Wind]]'' swept the major awards, including Best Actress, which went to [[Vivien Leigh]].<ref name="Levy2003">{{Cite book |first=Emanuel |last=Levy |title=All about Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dH2Lb_YhIhAC&pg=PA328 |access-date=25 July 2010 |date= 2003 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8264-1452-6 |page=329 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150802/https://books.google.com/books?id=dH2Lb_YhIhAC&pg=PA328 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ParishStanke1975">{{Cite book |first1=James Robert |last1=Parish |first2=Don E. |last2=Stanke |title=The Debonairs |url=https://archive.org/details/debonairs00pari |url-access=registration |access-date=25 July 2010 |year=1975 |publisher=Arlington House |location=New Rochelle, NY |isbn=978-0-87000-293-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/debonairs00pari/page/95 95]}}</ref> In 1954, however, she was awarded an [[Academy Honorary Award]] "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances".<ref name="awardsdatabase.oscars.org" /> Predictably, Garbo did not show up at the ceremony, and the statuette was mailed to her home address.<ref name="Levy2003" />

Garbo twice received the [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress]]: for ''Anna Karenina'' in 1935, and for ''Camille'' in 1936. She won the [[National Board of Review]] Best Acting Award for ''Camille'' in 1936; for ''Ninotchka'' in 1939; and for ''Two-Faced Woman'' in 1941. The Swedish royal medal [[Litteris et Artibus]], which is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture (especially music, dramatic art, or literature) was presented to Garbo in January 1937.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757280,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103122614/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757280,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 November 2011 |access-date=24 July 2010 |newspaper=Time |date=11 January 1937 |quote=In Council of State King Gustaf of Sweden decorated Cinemactress Greta Garbo with the nation's gold medal litteris et artibus, highest Swedish award for artistic achievement. |title=People, Jan.&nbsp;11, 1937}}</ref> In a 1950 [[Variety (magazine)|''Daily Variety'']] opinion poll, Garbo was voted "Best Actress of the Half Century",<ref>{{Cite news |title=Cinema: Best of the Half-Century |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858696,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417030248/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858696,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2008 |access-date=14 July 2010 |newspaper=Time |date=6 March 1950}}</ref> In 1957, she was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by [[George Eastman House]] for distinguished contribution to the art of film.<ref>[http://www.eastmanhouse.org/museum/awards.php "Awards granted by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415183637/http://www.eastmanhouse.org/museum/awards.php |date=15 April 2012 }}. [[George Eastman House]]. Retrieved 30 April 2012.</ref>

In November 1983, she was made a Commander of the Swedish [[Order of the Polar Star]] by order of [[Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden|King Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden]].<ref name="NYTimes1983-honored" /> In 1985, she was awarded the [[Illis quorum]] by the government of Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 2006 |title=Regeringens belöningsmedaljer och regeringens utmärkelse: Professors namn |url=https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/61bab671f59a46af81cb11ee99e0d0eb/regeringens-beloningsmedaljer-och-regeringens-utmarkelse-professors-namn |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102152834/https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/61bab671f59a46af81cb11ee99e0d0eb/regeringens-beloningsmedaljer-och-regeringens-utmarkelse-professors-namn |archive-date=2021-11-02 |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Regeringskansliet |language=sv}}</ref> In 1985, [[International Star Registry|a star was nicknamed after her]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greta Garbo Star Registry Certificate  |url=https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/121/lot/52297 |website=[[Julien's Auctions]] |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827223125/https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/121/lot/52297 |url-status=live }}</ref> For her contributions to cinema, in 1960, she was honored with a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 6901 [[Hollywood Boulevard]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greta Garbo |url=https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/greta-garbo |access-date=2022-08-27 |website=Legacy Project Chicago |language=en |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827223124/https://legacyprojectchicago.org/person/greta-garbo |url-status=live }}</ref>

Garbo appears on a number of postage stamps, and in September 2005, the [[United States Postal Service]] and Swedish [[Posten (Sweden)|Posten]] jointly issued two [[commemorative stamp]]s bearing her image.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Healey |first=Matthew |title=Arts, Briefly; Another Garbo Role |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E5DD1F31F934A2575AC0A9639C8B63 |access-date=17 July 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=17 September 2005 |archive-date=13 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313142506/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E5DD1F31F934A2575AC0A9639C8B63 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=Greta Garbo Has Starring Role on U.S. Postal Stamp |publisher=United States Postal Service |date=25 June 2012 |url=http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2005/sr05_045.htm |access-date=30 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051017193908/http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2005/sr05_045.htm |archive-date=17 October 2005 |quote=... the U.S. Postal Service and Sweden Post jointly issued two commemorative postage stamps bearing her likeness. Both stamps, issued near what would have been her 100th birthday, are engravings based on a 1932 photograph&nbsp;...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |editor-first=William J. |editor-last=Gicker |year=2006 |title=Greta Garbo 37¢ |journal=USA Philatelic |volume=11 |issue=3 |page=12}}</ref>
On 6 April 2011, [[Sveriges Riksbank]] announced that Garbo's portrait was to be featured on the 100-[[Swedish krona|krona]] banknote, beginning in 2014–2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sweden's new banknotes and coins |url=http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=46685 |date=6 April 2011 |publisher=[[Sveriges Riksbank]] |location=Stockholm |access-date=6 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927172146/http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=46685 |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

== Filmography ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Silent films
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Role
! class="unsortable" scope="col" | Notes
|-
| 1920
| ''Mr. and Mrs. Stockholm Go Shopping''
| Elder sister
| An advertisement. Garbo's segment<ref>{{YouTube|H37gaOscq98|"Greta Garbo's first performance: a commercial."}}, 27 December 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2012. This clip also features other "Garbo commercials" from 1920 to 1921.</ref> is often known as ''How Not to Dress''.<ref name="Herr" /><ref name="GostaBerlingDVD">{{Cite video |title=The Saga of Gosta Berling |url=http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?product_id=943 |year=2006 |medium=[[DVD]] |publisher=[[Kino International (company)|Kino International]] |id={{UPC|738329046927}} |location=New York |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-date=8 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111108124036/http://kino.com/video/item.php?product_id=943 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
| 1921
| ''[[A Fortune Hunter]]''<ref>{{cite news |author=Hurlburt, Roger |date=16 April 1990 |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-04-16/news/9001030245_1_greta-garbo-greta-lovisa-gustafsson-gosta-berling |title=Film Idol Garbo Dies |newspaper=[[Sun-Sentinel]] |access-date=14 April 2017 |archive-date=14 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414163804/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-04-16/news/9001030245_1_greta-garbo-greta-lovisa-gustafsson-gosta-berling |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| Extra
| Uncredited; [[lost film]]
|-
| 1921
| ''Our Daily Bread''
| Companion
| An advertising film<ref name="GostaBerlingDVD" />
|-
| 1922
| ''Peter the Tramp''
| Greta
| Garbo's first part in a commercial film<ref name="GostaBerlingDVD" />
|-
| 1924
| ''[[The Saga of Gosta Berling]]''
| Elizabeth Dohna
| Garbo's first leading part in a feature-length film; Swedish, dir. Mauritz Stiller.
|-
| 1925
| ''[[The Joyless Street]]''
| Greta Rumfort
| German film directed by G.W. Pabst
|-
| 1926
| ''[[Torrent (1926 film)|Torrent]]''
| Leonora Moreno aka La Brunna
| Garbo's first American film. All of Garbo's subsequent movies were made in Hollywood and produced by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]].
|-
| 1926
| ''[[The Temptress (1926 film)|The Temptress]]''
| Elena
|
|-
| 1926
| ''[[Flesh and the Devil]]''
| Felicitas
| The first of seven Garbo films directed by Clarence Brown, and first of four movies with co-star John Gilbert
|-
| 1927
| ''[[Love (1927 American film)|Love]]''
| [[Anna Karenina]]
| Adapted from the novel ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' by [[Tolstoy]]
|-
| 1928
| ''[[The Divine Woman]]''
| Marianne
| The film is lost; only a 9-minute reel exists.
|-
| 1928
| ''[[The Mysterious Lady]]''
| Tania Fedorova
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1928
| ''[[A Woman of Affairs]]''
| Diana Merrick Furness
| The first of seven Garbo films with actor [[Lewis Stone]], who, with the exception of ''Wild Orchids'', played secondary roles.
|-
| 1929
| ''[[Wild Orchids (film)|Wild Orchids]]''
| Lillie Sterling
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1929
| ''[[A Man's Man (1929 film)|A Man's Man]]''
| Herself
| Garbo and [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]] make cameo appearances; this film is lost.
|-
| 1929
| ''[[The Single Standard]]''
| Arden Stuart Hewlett
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1929
| ''[[The Kiss (1929 film)|The Kiss]]''
| Irene Guarry
| Garbo's, and MGM's, last silent picture
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Sound films
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Role
! class="unsortable" scope="col" | Notes
|-
| 1930
| ''[[Anna Christie (1930 English-language film)|Anna Christie]]''
| [[Anna Christie]]
| Nominated – [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]
|-
| 1930
| ''[[Romance (1930 film)|Romance]]''
| Madame Rita Cavallini
| Nominated – [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]
|-
| 1930
| ''[[Anna Christie (1930 German-language film)|Anna Christie]]''
| Anna Christie
| MGM's German version of ''Anna Christie'' was also released in 1930
|-
| 1931
| ''[[Inspiration (1931 film)|Inspiration]]''
| Yvonne Valbret
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1931
| ''[[Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)]]''
| Susan Lenox
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1931
| ''[[Mata Hari (1931 film)|Mata Hari]]''
| [[Mata Hari]]
| After the multi-star ''Grand Hotel'', Garbo's highest-grossing film
|-
| 1932
| ''[[Grand Hotel (1932 film)|Grand Hotel]]''
| Grusinskaya
| Academy Award for Best Picture
|-
| 1932
| ''[[As You Desire Me (film)|As You Desire Me]]''
| Zara aka Marie
| The first of three Garbo films with co-star [[Melvyn Douglas]]
|-
| 1933
| ''[[Queen Christina (film)|Queen Christina]]''
| [[Christina, Queen of Sweden|Queen Christina]]
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1934
| ''[[The Painted Veil (1934 film)|The Painted Veil]]''
| Katrin Koerber Fane
| <!-- Notes -->
|-
| 1935
| ''[[Anna Karenina (1935 film)|Anna Karenina]]''
| Anna Karenina
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress]]
|-
| 1936
| ''[[Camille (1936 film)|Camille]]''
| [[The Lady of the Camellias|Marguerite Gautier]]
| [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress]]<br />[[National Board of Review of Motion Pictures|National Board of Review]] [[National Board of Review Awards 1937|Best Acting Award]]<br />Nominated – [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]
|-
| 1937
| ''[[Conquest (1937 film)|Conquest]]''
| [[Countess Marie Walewska]]
|
|-
| 1939
| ''[[Ninotchka]]''
| Nina Ivanovna "Ninotchka" Yakushova
| [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress|National Board of Review Best Acting Award]]<br />Nominated – [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]<br />Nominated – [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress]]
|-
| 1941
| ''[[Two-Faced Woman]]''
| Karin Borg Blake / Katherine Borg
| [[National Board of Review]] of Motion Pictures Best Acting Award
|}

=== Box-office ranking ===
{{See also|Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll}}
* 1929 – 17th
* 1930 – 6th
* 1931 – 10th
* 1932 – 5th

== See also ==
* [[:Category:Cultural depictions of Greta Garbo|Cultural depictions of Greta Garbo]]
* [[:Category:Images of Greta Garbo|Images of Greta Garbo]]
* [[List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories]]
* [[List of Academy Award records]] – first Nordic to be nominated for acting, in ''[[Anna Christie (1930 English-language film)|Anna Christie]]'' (1930)

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Biery1928a-dreaming">{{Harvnb|Biery|1928a|p=}}. When I wasn't thinking, wasn't wondering what it was all about, this living; I was dreaming. Dreaming how I could become a player.</ref>

<ref name="Biery1928a-hatesc">{{Harvnb|Biery|1928a|p=}}. I hated school. I hated the bonds they put on me. There were so many things outside. I liked history best, but I was afraid of the map—geography you call it. But I had to go to school like other children. The public school, just as you have in this country.</ref>

<ref name="Biery1928a-noplay">{{Harvnb|Biery|1928a|p=}}. I didn't play much. Except skating and skiing and throwing snowballs. I did most of my playing by thinking. I played a little with my brother and sister, pretending we were in shows. Like other children. But usually, I did my own pretending. I was up and down. Very happy one moment, the next moment – there was nothing left for me.</ref>

<ref name="Biery1928a-sixorseven">{{Harvnb|Biery|1928a|p=}}. Then I found a theater. I must have been six or seven. Two theaters, really. One was a cabaret; one a regular theater, – across from one another. And there was a back porch to both of them. A long plank on which the actors and actresses walked to get in the back door. I used to go there at seven o'clock in the evening, when they would be coming in, and wait until eight-thirty. Watch them come in; listen to them getting ready. The big back door was always open even in the coldest weather. Listen to their voices doing their parts in the productions. Smell the greasepaint! There is no smell in the world like the smell of the backyard of a theater. No smell that will mean as much to me—ever. Night after night, I sat there dreaming. Dreaming when I would be inside—getting ready.</ref><ref name="Biery1928c-Stiller-artist">{{Harvnb|Biery|1928c|p=}}. Mr. Stiller is an artist. He does not understand the American factories. He has always made his own pictures in Europe, where he is the master. In our country it is always the small studio. He does not understand the American Business. He could speak no English. So he was taken off the picture. It was given to Mr. Niblo. How I was broken to pieces, nobody knows. I was so unhappy I did not think I could go on.</ref>

<ref name="Brown1965">{{Cite book |first=John Mason |last=Brown |title=The worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896–1939 |url=https://archive.org/details/worldsofrobertes00brow |url-access=registration |access-date=20 July 2010 |year=1965 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=978-0-313-20937-6 |quote=I want to go on record as saying that Greta Garbo in The Temptress knocked me for a loop. I had seen Miss Garbo once before, in The Torrent. I had been mildly impressed by her visual effectiveness. In The Temptress, however, this effectiveness proves positively devastating. She may not be the best actress on the screen. I am powerless to formulate an opinion on her dramatic technique. But there is no room for argument as to the efficacy of her allure&nbsp;... [She] qualifies herewith as the official Dream Princess of the Silent Drama Department of Life.}}</ref>

<ref name="ConwayMcGregorRicci1968p51">{{Cite book |last1=Conway |first1=Michael |last2=McGregor |first2=Dion |last3=Ricci |first3=Mark |title=The Films of Greta Garbo |year=1968 |publisher=Citadel Press |location=Secaucus, NJ |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOZkAAAAMAAJ |access-date=20 July 2010 |page=51 |isbn=978-0-86369-552-0 |quote=[[Harriette Underhill]] in the ''New York Herald Tribune'': 'This is the first time we have seen Miss Garbo and she is a delight to the eyes! We may also add that she is a magnetic woman and a finished actress. In fact, she leaves nothing to be desired. Such a profile, such grace, such poise, and most of all, such eyelashes. They swish the air at least a half-inch beyond her languid orbs. Miss Garbo is not a conventional beauty, yet she makes all other beauties seem a little obvious.{{'-}} |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085559/https://books.google.com/books?id=WOZkAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="DAmico1962p901">{{Cite book |last=D'Amico |first=Silvio |title=Enciclopedia dello spettacolo |year=1962 |publisher=Casa editrice Le Maschere |location=Rome |language=it |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PfiEKHZLfRMC |access-date=25 July 2010 |page=901 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085453/https://books.google.com/books?id=PfiEKHZLfRMC |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Flamini1994">{{Cite book |first=Roland |last=Flamini |title=Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3pZAAAAMAAJ |access-date=20 July 2010 |date=1994 |publisher=Crown Publishers |location=New York |isbn=978-0-517-58640-2 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085524/https://books.google.com/books?id=A3pZAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="ForrestKoos2002p151-152">{{Cite book |last1=Forrest |first1=Jennifer |last2=Koos |first2=Leonard R. |title=Dead Ringers: The Remake in Theory and Practice |series=SUNY Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video |year=2002 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany |isbn=978-0-7914-5169-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1CRyD4Bs44C&pg=PA151 |access-date=25 July 2010 |pages=151–152 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085454/https://books.google.com/books?id=R1CRyD4Bs44C&pg=PA151 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Furhammar1991p129">{{Cite book |last1=Furhammar |first1=Leif |last2=Svenska filminstitutet |title=Filmen i Sverige: en historia i tio kapitel |year=1991 |publisher=Wiken |location=Höganäs |language=sv |isbn=978-91-7119-517-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0l5ZAAAAMAAJ |access-date=24 July 2010 |page=129 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150815/https://books.google.com/books?id=0l5ZAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<!--<ref name="Gever2003p144">{{Cite book |last=Gever |first=Martha |title=Entertaining Lesbians: Celebrity, Sexuality, and Self-Invention |date=8 September 2003 |location=Cambridge |publisher=New York |isbn=978-0-415-94480-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/entertaininglesb0000geve |url-access=registration |access-date=24 July 2010 |page=[https://archive.org/details/entertaininglesb0000geve/page/144 144]}}</ref> -->

<ref name="Golden2001">{{Cite book |first=Eve |last=Golden |title=Golden images: 41 essays on silent film stars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gzycn1tYydAC&pg=PA106 |access-date=20 July 2010 |year=2001 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-0834-4 |page=106 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085453/https://books.google.com/books?id=gzycn1tYydAC&pg=PA106 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="HallHadaunt1926">{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Hadaunt |title=A New Swedish Actress |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE3D91231EE3ABC4A51DFB466838D639EDE |access-date=20 July 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=22 February 1926 |quote=In this current effort Greta Garbo, a Swedish actress, who is fairly well known in Germany, makes her screen bow to American audiences. As a result of her ability, her undeniable prepossessing appearance and her expensive taste in fur coats, she steals most of the thunder in this vehicle |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403150701/https://www.nytimes.com/1926/02/22/archives/the-screen-a-new-swedish-actress.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="HallMorduant1926">{{Cite news |last=Hall |first=Morduant |title=The Temptress Another Ibanez Story |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E2D9173CEE3ABC4952DFB667838D639EDE |access-date=20 July 2010 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=11 October 1926 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104202356/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A07E2D9173CEE3ABC4952DFB667838D639EDE |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Jacobs2008">{{Cite book |first=Lea |last=Jacobs |title=The Decline of Sentiment: American Film in the 1920s |url=https://archive.org/details/declineofsentime0000jaco |url-access=registration |access-date=20 July 2010 |date=2008 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-25457-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/declineofsentime0000jaco/page/258 258]–259}}</ref>

<ref name="Katchmer1991">{{Cite book |first=George A. |last=Katchmer |title=Eighty Silent Film Stars: Biographies and Filmographies of the Obscure to the Well Known |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xWlZAAAAMAAJ |access-date=20 July 2010 |year=1991 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-89950-494-0 |page=193 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403160720/https://books.google.com/books?id=xWlZAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Kellow2004p338">{{Cite book |last=Kellow |first=Brian |title=The Bennetts: An Acting Family |date= 2004 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=978-0-8131-2329-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/bennettsactingfa00kell_0 |url-access=registration |access-date=25 July 2010 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bennettsactingfa00kell_0/page/338 338]}}</ref>

<ref name="Koszarski1994">{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Koszarski |title=An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915–1928 |series=History of the American Cinema |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PLUbxH1_PREC&pg=PA253 |access-date=20 July 2010 |date= 1994 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-08535-0 |page=253}}</ref>

<ref name="Lektyr1931">{{Cite journal |title=Greta Garbo |journal=Lektyr |date=17 January 1931 |volume=9 |issue=3 |language=sv}}</ref>

<ref name="Limbacher1968p219">{{Cite book |last=Limbacher |first=James L. |title=Four Aspects of the Film |series=Aspects of film |year=1968 |publisher=Brussel & Brussel |location=New York |isbn=978-0-405-11138-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MaYfAQAAIAAJ |access-date=17 July 2010 |page=219 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085526/https://books.google.com/books?id=MaYfAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="NYT-GarboBack-smokinglounge">{{Harvnb|NYTimes|1936}}. For the first time since she achieved international eminence in the motion-picture world, Miss Garbo granted an interview to the press and received the reporters en masse in the smoking lounge while the ship was at Quarantine.</ref>

<ref name="NYTimes1983-honored">{{Cite news |title=Greta Garbo Honored |newspaper=The New York Times |page=17 |date=3 November 1983 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/03/arts/greta-garbo-honored.html |access-date=25 July 2010 |quote=Greta Garbo was made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the North Star yesterday by order of King Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden. The private ceremony in the New York home of Mrs. Jane Gunther was also attended by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Gruson. The honor, extended only to foreigners, was presented to Miss Garbo by Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister, the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, in recognition of the actress's distinguished service to Sweden. Miss Garbo, born in Stockholm, is now an American citizen. |archive-date=31 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531020708/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/03/arts/greta-garbo-honored.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Reid2006p44">{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=John Howard |title=Cinemascope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge |date=January 2006 |publisher=Lulu Press |location=Morrisville, NC |isbn=978-1-4116-7188-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmc4m9FNUAsC&pg=PA44 |access-date=25 July 2010 |page=44 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085454/https://books.google.com/books?id=lmc4m9FNUAsC&pg=PA44 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Resto2008">{{Cite book |first1=Rafael J. |last1=Rivera-Viruet |first2=Max |last2=Resto |title=Hollywood... Se Habla Español: Hispanics in Hollywood Films ... Yesterday, today and tomorrow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hk52WGdUmbEC&pg=PA37 |access-date=20 July 2010 |year=2008 |publisher=Terramax Entertainment |location=New York |isbn=978-0-9816650-0-9 |pages=31–37 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085522/https://books.google.com/books?id=hk52WGdUmbEC&pg=PA37 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Sjolander1971p12-13">{{Cite book |last=Sjölander |first=Ture |title=Garbo |url=https://archive.org/details/garbo00sjla |url-access=registration |access-date=24 July 2010 |year=1971 |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-013926-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/garbo00sjla/page/n1 12]–13}}</ref>

<ref name="TCM-GarboDoc">{{Cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/633367/garbo#articles-reviews |title=Garbo: A TCM Original Documentary |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |date=12 November 2009 |access-date=24 July 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113201856/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/633367/Garbo/articles.html |archive-date=13 January 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Thomsen1997p129">{{Cite book |last=Thomsen |first=Bodil Marie |title=Filmdivaer: Stjernens figur i Hollywoods melodrama 1920–40 |year=1997 |location=Copenhagen |isbn=978-87-7289-397-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ1kx9DiVOoC&pg=PA129 |access-date=20 July 2010 |page=129 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410085546/https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ1kx9DiVOoC&pg=PA129 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Variety-Torrent">{{Cite news |title=The Torrent Review |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117795813.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 |access-date=20 July 2010 |newspaper=Variety |date=1 January 1926 |quote=Greta Garbo, making her American debut as a screen star, has everything with looks, acting ability, and personality. When one is a Scandinavian and can put over a Latin characterization with sufficient power to make it most convincing, need there be any more said regarding her ability? She makes The Torrent worthwhile. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507173225/http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117795813.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 |archive-date=7 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="WalkerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer1980">{{Cite book |first=Alexander |last=Walker |author2=Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |title=Garbo: A Portrait |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nmZZAAAAMAAJ |access-date=20 July 2010 |date=1980 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-02-622950-0 |page=41}}</ref>

<ref name="WareBraukman2004p227-228">{{Cite book |last1=Ware |first1=Susan |last2=Braukman |first2=Stacy Lorraine |others=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study |title=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary: Completing the Twentieth Century |year=2004 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-674-01488-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&pg=PA227 |access-date=24 July 2010 |pages=227–228}}</ref>

<ref name="Wollstein1994">{{Cite book |first=Hans J. |last=Wollstein |title=Strangers in Hollywood: The History of Scandinavian Actors in American Films from 1910 to World War II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EPkqAQAAIAAJ |access-date=20 July 2010 |year=1994 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=Metuchen, NJ |isbn=978-0-8108-2938-1 |page=95 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816191936/https://books.google.com/books?id=EPkqAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Zierold1969p164">{{Cite book |last=Zierold |first=Norman J. |title=Garbo |year=1969 |publisher=Stein and Day |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8128-1212-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/garbo00zier |url-access=registration |access-date=20 July 2010 |page=[https://archive.org/details/garbo00zier/page/164 164] |quote={{-'}}Greta Garbo vitalizes the name part of this picture. She is the Temptress. Her tall, swaying figure moves Cleopatra-ishly from delirious Paris to the virile Argentine. Her alluring mouth and volcanic, slumbrous eyes enfire men to such passion that friendships collapse.' Dorothy Herzog, ''New York Mirror'' (1926):}}</ref>
}}

=== Bibliography and further reading ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Bainbridge |first=John |title=The Great Garbo |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=10 January 1955a |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NVQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA84 |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403151219/https://books.google.com/books?id=NVQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Bainbridge |first=John |title=The Great Garbo: Part Two: Greta's Haunted Path to Stardom |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=17 January 1955b |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HlQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76 |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403151224/https://books.google.com/books?id=HlQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Bainbridge |first=John |title=The Great Garbo: Part Three: The Braveness to Be Herself |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=24 January 1955c |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA112 |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403151220/https://books.google.com/books?id=61MEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last=Bainbridge |first=John |title=Garbo |year=1955d |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY |edition=1st |oclc=1215789 |url=https://archive.org/details/garbo00bain |url-access=registration |access-date=22 July 2010 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/garbo00bain/page/256 256] pages |no-pp=y }}
* {{Cite book |last=Bainbridge |first=John |author-mask=2 |title=Garbo |year=1971 |publisher=Holt, Rinehart & Winston |location=New York |edition=1st |type=reissued |isbn=978-0-03-085045-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/garbo0000bain |url-access=registration |access-date=22 July 2010 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/garbo0000bain/page/320 320] pages |no-pp=y }}
* {{Cite news |title=Greta Garbo Dies at Age 84 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/16/greta-garbo-dies-at-age-84/2392db2c-43ad-4a5f-b801-1daa478e8d79/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=16 April 1990 |first=Bart |last=Barnes |access-date=7 December 2015 |archive-date=2 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102090645/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/04/16/greta-garbo-dies-at-age-84/2392db2c-43ad-4a5f-b801-1daa478e8d79/ |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Biery |first=Ruth |title=The Story of Greta Garbo As Told By her to Ruth Biery, Chapter I |journal=[[Photoplay]] |date=April 1928a |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/ |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717063727/http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/ |archive-date=17 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Biery |first=Ruth |title=The Story of Greta Garbo As Told By her to Ruth Biery, Chapter II |journal=[[Photoplay]] |date=May 1928b |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/photoplay-may-1928-garbo-story.html |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027094218/http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/photoplay-may-1928-garbo-story.html |archive-date=27 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Biery |first=Ruth |title=The Story of Greta Garbo As Told By her to Ruth Biery, Chapter III |journal=[[Photoplay]] |date=June 1928c |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/photoplay-june-1928-garbo-story.html |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116064816/http://www.greta-garbo.de/interview-with-greta-garbo-photoplay-1928-ruth-biery/photoplay-june-1928-garbo-story.html |archive-date=16 January 2013 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Borg |first=Sven Hugo |author-link=Sven Hugo Borg |title=The Only True Story of Greta Garbo's Private Life |year=1933 |publisher=Amalgamated Press |location=London |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/private-life-of-greta-garbo-by-sven-hugo-borg |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116064907/http://www.greta-garbo.de/private-life-of-greta-garbo-by-sven-hugo-borg |archive-date=16 January 2013 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Broman |first=Sven |title=Conversations with Greta Garbo |year=1990 |publisher=Viking Press, Penguin Group |location=New York |isbn=978-0-670-84277-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00brom }}
* {{cite book |last=Carr |first=Larry |title=Four Fabulous Faces: The Evolution and Metamorphosis of Swanson, Garbo, Crawford and Dietrich |year=1970 |publisher=Doubleday and Company |isbn=0-87000-108-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Chandler |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Chandler |title=I Know Where I'm Going: Katharine Hepburn, A Personal Biography |year=2010 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwc3FYlODrcC&pg=PA119 |isbn=978-1-4391-4928-7 |page=119 |access-date=21 August 2011 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403151316/https://books.google.com/books?id=gwc3FYlODrcC&pg=PA119#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last=Crafton |first=Donald |title=The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931 |series=History of American Cinema |year=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22128-4}}
* {{cite news |last=Gilbert |first=Douglas |title=James Montgomery Flagg reveals The Garbo You Never Knew |newspaper=The New Movie Magazine |date=April 1935 |pages=16, 19}}
* {{Cite book |last=Krutzen |first=Michaela |title=The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen: The Fabrication of the Star Greta Garbo |year=1992 |publisher=Peter Lang |location=New York |isbn=3-631-42412-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Laramie |first=Moon |title=Spirit of Garbo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJxhuwEACAAJ |access-date=20 July 2019 |year=2018 |publisher=Martin Firrell Company Ltd |location=London |isbn=978-1-912622-02-3 |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403151221/https://books.google.com/books?id=IJxhuwEACAAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite news |last=LaSalle |first=Mick |author-link=Mick LaSalle |date=6 July 2005 |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/VIEW-Saved-from-ignominy-His-daughter-s-2623864.php |title=Interview with John Gilbert's daughter, Leatrice Gilbert Fountain |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |access-date=23 April 2010 |archive-date=16 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816073438/http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-07-06/entertainment/17382145_1_film-history-leatrice-joy-gilbert-fountain-cecil-b-demille |url-status=live }}
* Italo Moscati, "Greta Garbo, diventare star per sempre", Edizioni Sabinae, Roma, 2010.
* {{Cite news |title=Greta Garbo Back – A Bit Less Aloof: Film Star, Still Showing the Effects of Illness, Consents to 10-Minute interview |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 May 1936 |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/com/greta-garbo-back.html |access-date=12 July 2010 |ref=CITEREFNYTimes1936 |archive-date=30 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030090809/http://greta-garbo.de/com/greta-garbo-back.html |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite news |title=Greta Garbo, 84, Screen Icon Who Fled Her Stardom, Dies |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 April 1990 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0918.html |access-date=22 July 2010 |ref=CITEREFNYTimes1990 |archive-date=18 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918223454/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0918.html |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book |last=Palmborg |first=Rilla Page |title=The Private Life of Greta Garbo |year=1931 |publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc |location=Garden City, NY |isbn=978-90-00-00721-9 |url=http://www.greta-garbo.de/the-private-life-of-greta-garbo |access-date=22 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114183610/http://www.greta-garbo.de/the-private-life-of-greta-garbo |archive-date=14 January 2013 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book |last=Paris |first=Barry |title=Garbo |year=1994 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8166-4182-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/garbopari00pari }}
* {{cite book |editor=Ricci, Stefania |title=Greta Garbo: The Mystery of Style |location=Milan |publisher=Skira Editore |year=2010 |isbn=978-88-572-0580-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Robinson |first=David |editor=Duncan, Paul |title=Garbo |year=2007 |publisher=Taschen |location=Köln |isbn=978-3-8228-2209-8}}
* Sarris, Andrew. (1998). ''You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talking Film – History and Memory, 1927–1949''. Oxford University Press. New York. {{ISBN|0-19-513426-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Schanke |first=Robert A. |year=2003 |title='That Furious Lesbian': The Story of Mercedes de Acosta |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |isbn=0-8093-2511-X}}
* {{Cite book |last=Souhami |first=Diana |title=Greta and Cecil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NEaAQAAIAAJ |access-date=24 July 2010 |year=1994 |publisher=Harper |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-06-250829-4 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Swenson |first=Karen |title=Greta Garbo: A life Apart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2JZAAAAMAAJ |year=1997 |publisher=Scribner |location=New York |isbn=978-0-684-80725-6 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Vickers |first=Hugo |title=Loving Garbo: The Story of Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton, and Mercedes de Acosta |year=1994 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-41301-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vickers |first=Hugo |title=Cecil Beaton: The Authorised Biography |year=2002 |publisher=Phoenix Press |location=London |isbn=978-1-84212-613-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vieira |first=Mark A. |title=Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer |year=2009 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-26048-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Vieira |first=Mark A. |title=Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy |year=2005 |publisher=Harry A. Abrams |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8109-5897-5}}
* Vintkvist, Jennifer {{SKBL|name=Greta Lovisa Garbo}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|1256}}
* {{TCMDb name }}
* [https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800027779/bio Greta Garbo Biography – Yahoo! Movies]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130525035447/http://www.filmarkivet.se/sv/Film/?movieid=165 Reklamfilmer PUB Greta Garbo], commercials done in 1920 and 1922, Filmarkivet.se, [[Swedish Film Institute]]

{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Greta Garbo
|list =
{{Academy Honorary Award}}
{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress}}
}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garbo, Greta}}
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American actresses]]
[[Category:20th-century Lutherans]]
[[Category:20th-century Swedish actresses]]
[[Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients]]
[[Category:Actresses from New York City]]
[[Category:Actresses from Stockholm]]
[[Category:American film actresses]]
[[Category:American Lutherans]]
[[Category:Burials at Skogskyrkogården]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the Polar Star]]
[[Category:Deaths from kidney failure in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York City]]
[[Category:Litteris et Artibus recipients]]
[[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Illis quorum]]
[[Category:Swedish child actresses]]
[[Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Swedish film actresses]]
[[Category:Swedish Lutherans]]
[[Category:Swedish silent film actresses]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1930s]]