Swedish-American actress, one of the most magical and famous of the stars of the silver screen. She was raised in a cold water flat in Stockholm in a poor but close family. Her dad died in 1920. With her flawless apricot skin, honey colored hair and lavender eyes, she was a model in her teens. By 19 she was cast in the film “Gosta Berling.” Catching international notice, the following year she moved to Hollywood.
The most celebrated actress of her era, she played in films that included “Camille,” “Anna Christie,” and “Ninotchka.” She was a millionaire by the time she was 26 with property in three countries. Reclusive and retaining a sense of modesty and humility, she was once seen scrubbing clean the front steps of one of her homes. She withdrew more and more as she matured, with a reticence that was close to pathological, making her final movie in 1941, “Two Faced Woman.” Her early retirement enhanced the air of mystery about her, seen in her later years only as a furtive figure in an oversized hat, accompanied by her companion. Some two dozen books and thousands of stories all took a stab at penetrating to the essence of the enigmatic figure. In her last 50 years, her life seemed aimless and whenever her privacy could be invaded, the excursion held little reward; she was found dull and wanting.
Garbo had a classic alabaster beauty with a bi-sexuality that was fascinating and aloof. After her passionate affair with John Gilbert, she tended in theory to prefer the company of women. In actuality, she leaned more to celibate narcissism. An affair with Leopold Stokowski was well-documented during 1938 when they spent most of the year together in Italy and Sweden.
Greta Garbo died on 15 April 1990 at age 84 in New York City as a result of pneumonia and renal failure.
Link to Wikipedia biography