What happened to greta garbo biography stockholm

Tragedy seemed to follow Greta Garbo. Within a year of living in the U. In an interview with Photoplay in , Garbo told the publication, "My sister — she has died since I came to this country — I cannot believe it until I return to my home and find — she is not there to greet me. While Garbo was on a one-way train to stardom, her personal life was crumbling to bits and pieces.

She was trying to adjust to American life alongside her friend and mentor, Mauritz Stiller, after starring in MGM's pictures "Torrent" and "The Temptress" in which brought her and the studio massive success. However, tragedy struck again. Stiller didn't have as much success in Hollywood and moved back to Sweden in where he died the same year.

In a letter Garbo wrote to a friend back in Sweden, she exclaimed, "This ugly, ugly America, all machine, it is excruciating" via The New Yorker. Now without the support of her friend Stiller who made the journey to America with her, and without her sister back in Sweden, Garbo had to keep moving forward as the spotlight wasn't leaving her side.

Unlike the alluring and sensual facade she portrayed in films, Greta Garbo was quite the opposite in real life. This is why she received the nickname "The Swedish Sphinx. After the success of her first films with MGM in , Garbo became very picky to whom she gave interviews. In a story by Variety in , they wrote, "Practically nothing has ever been known personally about Miss Garbo, she being a publicity-shunner and the toughest of all stars to interview.

Garbo didn't merely request privacy from her adoring fans, she also wanted it on set. During the filming of "Queen Christina" in , Garbo wanted director Rouben Mamoulian to leave during the intimate scene. Mamoulian recalled that Garbo explained, "During these scenes, I allow only the cameraman and lighting man on the set. The director goes out for a coffee or a milkshake" via The New York Times.

Garbo lost that battle, and Mamoulian stayed on set for the scene. Ultimately, she could never win by trying to conceal her personal life from Hollywood because it made people want to know her even more. Greta Garbo was one of the most publicized celebrities during her Hollywood career, and with that came many rumors of her romantic relationships.

She became well-known for her romance with actor John Gilbert, with whom she co-starred in a handful of movies, including "Flesh and the Devil" and "Queen Christina. Many of her movies with intimate scenes also fueled rumors regarding whom she was in a relationship with, but Garbo never committed to anyone. Laramie, Moon Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd.

ISBN , p. According to biographer Moon Laramie, her relationship with de Acosta prompted Garbo's interest in both theosophy and the occult.

What happened to greta garbo biography stockholm

ISBN , pp. Archived from the original on 18 June Retrieved 7 May The Observer. Archived from the original on 12 September Retrieved 17 November The list of famous women who have had breast cancer Melbourne: Lonely Planet. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 17 May Retrieved 27 August TCM Archives. American Movie Classics. Chicago Tribune.

Archived from the original on 2 October New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co. The Lonely Life. New York: Berkley Books. Stanford University Press. George Cukor: Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Archived from the original on 31 May Retrieved 19 August Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on 4 September Archived from the original on 15 July Retrieved 16 August Associated Press.

Archived from the original on 28 July Retrieved 8 January Archived from the original on 27 August The Statue of Integrity official site in Swedish. Retrieved 14 August Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 14 August Retrieved 31 December Archived from the original on 29 April Retrieved 4 January Film Facts. Billboard Books.

The Kennedy, Matthew Archived from the original on 29 August Retrieved 23 July 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. The Debonairs. 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.

Archived from the original on 17 April Retrieved 14 July George Eastman House. Retrieved 30 April The private ceremony in the New York home of Mrs. Jane Gunther was also attended by Mr. 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. Regeringskansliet in Swedish. January Archived from the original on 2 November Julien's Auctions. Legacy Project Chicago. Archived from the original on 13 March Postal Stamp" Press release. United States Postal Service. Archived from the original on 17 October Retrieved 30 September Postal Service and Sweden Post jointly issued two commemorative postage stamps bearing her likeness.

Both stamps, issued near what would have been her th birthday, are engravings based on a photograph USA Philatelic. Stockholm: Sveriges Riksbank. This clip also features other "Garbo commercials" from to New York: Kino International. UPC Archived from the original on 8 November Archived from the original on 14 April Retrieved 14 April Bibliography and further reading [ edit ].

Bainbridge, John 10 January a. Retrieved 22 July Bainbridge, John 17 January b. Bainbridge, John 24 January c. Bainbridge, John d. Garbo 1st ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Garbo reissued 1st ed. Barnes, Bart 16 April The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2 January Biery, Ruth April a. Archived from the original on 17 July Biery, Ruth May b.

Archived from the original on 27 October Biery, Ruth June c. Archived from the original on 16 January Borg, Sven Hugo London: Amalgamated Press. Broman, Sven Conversations with Greta Garbo. Carr, Larry Doubleday and Company. Chandler, Charlotte Retrieved 21 August Crafton, Donald History of American Cinema. University of California Press.

Gilbert, Douglas April The New Movie Magazine. Krutzen, Michaela New York: Peter Lang. LaSalle, Mick 6 July San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 April Archived from the original on 30 October Retrieved 12 July Archived from the original on 18 September Palmborg, Rilla Page The Private Life of Greta Garbo. Archived from the original on 14 January Paris, Barry New York: Alfred A.

Ricci, Stefania, ed. Greta Garbo: The Mystery of Style. Milan: Skira Editore. Robinson, David Duncan, Paul ed. Sarris, Andrew. Oxford University Press. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN X. Souhami, Diana Greta and Cecil. San Francisco: Harper. Swenson, Karen Greta Garbo: A life Apart. New York: Scribner. Vickers, Hugo New York: Random House.

Cecil Beaton: The Authorised Biography. London: Phoenix Press. Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer. Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy. New York: Harry A. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greta Garbo. Wikiquote has quotations related to Greta Garbo. Awards for Greta Garbo. Academy Honorary Award.

Warner Bros. Ryder , Harry D. Authority control databases. It proved to be his last film. MGM refused to renew his contract and Gilbert died of a heart attack three years later. Although Queen Christina is Garbo's most famous film, and its final shot of Christina's departure on a ship for Italy with the wind streaming through her hair one of the cinema's most famous images, Greta hated the finished product.

It's really bad in every respect, but the worst thing is they'll think I don't know any better. His efforts to change her mind were fruitless and the first scene was shot cold. You didn't have to tell Garbo to look like this or that, for this reason or that. No, you just had to tell her which emotion you wanted to have produced for the scene in question.

She really could act. As early as , after completing Queen Christina , Garbo was thinking of quitting the film business for good. Somerset Maugham novel. Her fortunes improved with 's Anna Karenina , a more faithful telling of the Tolstoy tale than Love of the previous decade; and with two films released in , Camille based on the story of Alphonsine Plessis and Conquest.

The former was directed by George Cukor , who shot three separate death scenes for Dumas' tubercular heroine with varying degrees of dialogue for Greta as she expired on screen. In the released version, Garbo says hardly anything on her deathbed. The choice was an effective one, for audiences were so moved by the film that one critic thought "people were going home as though they had been to Mass.

It can reflect feelings and sensations to such an intense degree that you are unable to analyze them. You are just carried away. Greta's work in both Anna Karenina and in Camille brought her an award from the New York Film Critics as Best Actress as well as Oscar nominations, although neither produced the Academy Award that many felt was due her.

She was finally given a special Oscar in for her "unforgettable screen performances. Completing work on Conquest , Greta ventured into the public eye by accompanying famed symphonic conductor Leopold Stokowski on a European tour which included a long overdue visit to Sweden. Stokowski gallantly refused to discuss his relationship with the world's most famous movie star, and although Greta allowed herself to be photographed in his company, she granted no interviews.

The press now routinely referred to her as "the Swedish Sphinx. Toward the end of that year, Garbo began work on what she later said was the favorite of all her films, 's Ninotchka. In her first romantic comedy, she played an unimaginative and pragmatic Communist bureaucrat who comes to Paris and falls in love with a wealthy and happy capitalist playboy.

Scripted by Billy Wilder , Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, and directed by Ernst Lubitsch , the picture was a sophisticated, wry examination of conflicting ideas in which love finally carries the day. Lubitsch was one of the few directors besides Mauritz Stiller of whom Garbo would speak respectfully. Lubitsch was especially understanding, she said, with her difficulty with a bit of dialogue in one scene in which she was required to say "Then I will kick you up the arse.

Lubitsch, she said, comforted her "like a loving father" and saw to it that the dialogue was adjusted to suit her. In the film's best-known scene, the famously morose Garbo laughs boisterously after her playboy pursuer, having failed to move her with a series of jokes, loses his temper and falls off his chair. In Ninotchka , Garbo gave a warm and accessible performance.

By the time Ninotchka opened in November of , war had broken out in Europe, and Garbo was cut off from her beloved Sweden. If peace comes, what I most want is to go home and not make another film. Wartime tensions in Hollywood focused on a handful of European actors who, it was rumored, were either secret agents for Hitler or spying for the Allies.

Garbo, it was said, had been assigned by American intelligence to spy on Swedish industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren, a suspected supplier to the Axis powers. Greta strenuously denied any such activity. In any event, there was another picture assignment, 's Two-Faced Woman , her second romantic comedy which again paired her with her co-star from Ninotchka , Melvyn Douglas.

Garbo played a double role, as twin sisters, with Douglas bamboozled by both women in a running gag of mistaken identities. Artistically, Greta seemed ill-suited to the picture's madcap humor and seemed to be struggling to make each sister a separate, believable character. Reviews were the worst of her career. Some weeks after the film's release, Greta Garbo announced that Two-Faced Woman would be her last film.

Typically, the news was communicated via a studio press release and Garbo herself never offered a public explanation for her decision, although the devastating reviews of her latest work must have played a role. Otherwise, she would have left the business much earlier. I really wanted to live another life. There were the inevitable stories that the great Garbo would return to the screen once the sting of Two-Faced Woman had worn off; and Greta herself wrote in a letter from New York in that she was considering several offers.

But a year later, she was telling friends back in Sweden that "I will never work again at my former job. I'm still living quietly and away from it all, so I've nothing exciting to tell you about. I have made no plans, neither for films nor for anything else. I am just flowing with the current. She divided her time between her apartment on New York's East 52nd Street and the Hotel Pardenn in Klosters, Switzerland, which, she said, felt "like a piece of Sweden to me.

She hobnobbed with a coterie of fellow international celebrities as concerned with their privacy as she was with hers. Among them were the Kennedys, Aristotle Onassis, the Aga Khan , and the indefatigable Churchill, who ventured the opinion that a comeback late in life should not be discounted. For over 30 years, Garbo's steadfast refusal of all requests for interviews perpetuated the mystery she gathered around her like a protective cloak.

I went to school. What does it matter? Garbo's first American film, The Torrent , cast her as a Spanish peasant who is desperate to become an opera star. But the planned Garbo-Stiller partnership in Hollywood never materialized. Stiller wasn't hired to direct The Torrent , and after a subsequent blow-up with MGM executives he bolted for Paramount, where he again encountered problems with his bosses.

He returned to Sweden in and died a year later. Garbo, however, proved to be an immediate hit. Her next two films, The Temptress and Flesh and the Devil , were both successful and made the actress an international star. For MGM, Garbo was the studio's biggest asset. Her first three films amounted to 13 percent of the company's profits from Garbo, ever mindful of the financial difficulties she'd grown up with, knew she had leverage.

In many ways Garbo represented a new kind of Hollywood actress, one whose vulnerabilities, sexuality, passion and mystery swirled together to entice both male and female audiences. Additionally, her style changed the course of American fashion, while her reclusive nature she gave her last American interview in only fueled the public's fascination with her.

The advent of sound presented a predicament for MGM. The future of films was clear, but there was real hesitancy to let audiences hear Garbo speak. Executives worried her star power would be diminished by her accent and low, throaty voice. She followed that same year with Romance , and earned Academy Award nominations for both features. In , Garbo took on one of her most ambitious roles as a fictional Swedish monarch in Queen Christina.

Other films followed, such as Anna Karenina , Camille , for which she earned her third Oscar nod and Conquest