Biography
Measurements
Bust: 35"
Waist: /2"
Hips: /2"
Friends and Family
Sven
[Brother]
::
Alva
[Sister]
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 I live like a monk: with one toothbrush, one cake of soap, and a pot of cream. If you`re going to die on screen, you`ve got to be strong and in good health.
There are many things in your heart you can never tell another person. They are you, your private joys and sorrows, and you can never tell them. You cheapen yourself, the inside of yourself, when you tell them.
Your joys and sorrows. You can never tell them. You cheapen the inside of yourself if you do." "There are some who want to get married and others who don`t. I have never had an impulse to go to the altar. I am a difficult person to lead.
[When asked in her later years by a fan if she is Greta Garbo]: "I * was* Greta Garbo."
Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening.
Being a movie star, and this applies to all of them, means being looked at from every possible direction. You are never left at peace, you`re just fair game.
I don`t want to be a silly temptress. I cannot see any sense in getting dressed up and doing nothing but tempting men in pictures.
I never said, `I want to be alone.` I only said, `I want to be left alone.` There is a whole world of difference.
I wish I were supernaturally strong so I could put right everything that is wrong.
If only those who dream about Hollywood knew how difficult it all is.
Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it.
The story of my life is about back entrances, side doors, secrets elevators and other ways of getting in and out of places so that people won`t bother me.
There is no one who would have me...I can`t cook.
You don`t have to be married to have a good friend as your partner for life.
Trivia
When she heard that David O. Selznick, who had produced her hit Anna Karenina (1935), was leaving MGM in 1935 to start his own studio, she begged him to stay saying that she would let him personally supervise all of her pictures exclusively. He said that it would be a great honor, but he had other plans. Ironically, the usually very finicky Irving Thalberg, Garbo`s other favorite producer, was the first person to give Selznick money to start his company ($U200,000).
Gary Cooper was reportedly one of her favorite actors. She requested him for several of her films, but nothing ever materialized.
In late 1934, after Queen Christina (1933) and The Painted Veil (1934), which were both gigantic European successes (making twice their budget in the UK alone), but underwhelming US successes, Garbo signed a contract with MGM saying that she would only make films under David O. Selznick and Irving Thalberg. Her next two films, Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936) were notable hits at the US box office, and produced by Selznick and Thalberg respectively. In 1937 her contract had to be revised as Selznick left the studio in 1935 and Thalberg had died. She made only 3 films after Camille (1936).
She was Adolf Hitler`s favorite actress.
Throughout her entire MGM career, insisted that William Daniels be cinematographer on her pictures. This may not have been purely superstition, as the two notable films she made without him: Conquest (1937) and Two Faced Woman (1941) were her only notable flops.
According to her friend, producer William Frye, he offered Garbo one million dollars to star as the Mother Superior in his film The Trouble with Angels (1966). When she declined, he cast Rosalind Russell in the part - at a much lower salary.
Garbo`s greatest confidant was Salka Viertel, a German friend who had known Garbo back in Sweden. Viertel proved to be very manipulative of Garbo, including relationships (particularly with that of Mercedes de Acosta), film choices, and general living. It was in fact Salka that kept Garbo from returning to films due to her persuasive workings. Salka was ironically friendly with Marlene Dietrich, Garbo`s enemy, whom Salka had known back in Germany`s Weimer Republic and whom had much dirt on Dietrich`s deepest secrets and past. Garbo`s film choices are largely based on Salka`s persuasion; they co-starred in the German version of Anna Christie (1930), soon after Garbo insisting that Salka be placed on the MGM payroll as a writer for her films.
Her favorite American director was Clarence Brown, who directed her in six films, including the classics Flesh and the Devil (1926), A Woman of Affairs (1928), Anna Christie (1930), and Anna Karenina (1935).
Her first "talkie" film was Anna Christie (1930).
Her first film appearance ever was in a short advertising film that ran in local theaters in Stockholm.
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna`s song "Vogue"
Once lived in the famed Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles (8221 Sunset Boulevard).
Popularized trenchcoats & berets in the 1930s.
She was voted the 25th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Spanish sculptor Pablo Gargallo created three pieces based on Garbo: "Masque de Greta Garbo à la mèche," "Tête de Greta Garbo avec chapeau," and "Masque de Greta Garbo aux cils."
Although it was believed that Garbo lived as an invalid in her post-Hollywood career, this is incorrect. She was a real jet setter, traveling with international tycoons and socialites. In the 1970s she traveled less and grew more and more eccentric, although she still took daily walks through Central Park with close friends and walkers. Due to failing health in the late 1980s, her mobility was challenged. In her final year it was her family that cared for her, including taking her to dialysis treatments. She died with them by her side.
Except at the very beginning of her career, she granted no interviews, signed no autographs, attended no premieres, and answered no fan mail.
Garbo actually hoped to return to films after the war but, for whatever reason, no projects ever materialized.
Garbo was criticized for not aiding the Allies during WWII, but it was later disclosed that she had helped Britain by identifying influential Nazi sympathizers in Stockholm and by providing introductions and carrying messsages for British agents.
Garbo was prone to chronic depression and spent many years attacking it through Eastern philosophy and a solid health food regiment. However, she never gave up smoking and cocktails.
Garbo`s sets were closed to all visitors and sometimes even the director! When asked why, she said: "During these scenes I allow only the cameraman and lighting man on the set. The director goes out for a coffee or a milkshake. When people are watching, I`m just a woman making faces for the camera. It destroys the illusion. If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise."
Her volatile mentor/director Mauritz Stiller, who brought her to Hollywood, was abruptly fired from directing her second MGM Hollywood film, The Temptress (1926), after repeated arguments with MGM execs and was soon let go. Unable to hold a job in Hollywood, he returned to Sweden in 1928 and died shortly after at the age of 45. Garbo was devastated.
Never married, she invested wisely and was known for her extreme frugality.
She was as secretive about her relatives as she was about herself, and, upon her death, the names of her survivors could not immediately be determined.
She was originally chosen for the lead roles in The Paradine Case (1947), My Cousin Rachel (1952), and The Wicked Dutchess. Garbo turned down these roles, with the exception of The Wicked Dutchess, which was never shot due to financial problems.
1951: Became a US citizen.
Before making it big, she worked as a soap-latherer in a barber`s shop back in Sweden.
During filming, whenever there was something going on that wasn`t to her liking she would simply say "I think I`ll go back to Sweden!" which frightened the studio heads so much that they gave in to her every whim.
In the mid-1950s she bought a seven-room-apartment in New York City (450 East 52nd Street) and lived there until she died.
She disliked Clark Gable, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.
Garbo, according to movie director Jacques Feyder: "At 9 o`clock a.m. the work may begin. "Tell Mrs. Garbo we`re ready" says the director. "I`m here" a low voice answers, and she appears, perfectly dressed and combed as the scene needs. Nobody could say by what door she came but she`s there. And at 6 o`clock PM, even if the shot could be finished in five minutes, she points at the watch and goes away giving you a sorry smile. She`s very strict with herself and hardly pleased with her work. She never looks rushes nor goes to the premières but some days later, early in the afternoon, enters all alone an outskirts movie house, takes place in a cheap seat and gets out only when the projection finishes, masked with her sunglasses".
Her personal favourite movie of her own was Camille (1936).
Interred at Skogskyrkogården Cemetery, Stockholm, Sweden.
Lived the last few years of her life in absolute seclusion.
Once voted by The Guinness Book of World Records as the most beautiful woman who ever lived.
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