Born Gretta Lovisa Gustafson, on September 18, 1905 in Stockholm Sweden to Anna Lovisa and Karl Alfred. Now known as Greta Garbo, she was born and grew up in one of the most poverty stricken era’s in U. S. and European history. At the time of her birth, her parents were so poor that Karl’s employer offered to adopt her to take the ” burden” off of the family of four. After considering the offer, Greta’s mother decided that ” If God gives you a child, He also gives you bread. ” Greta was often described as being a thin, gawky, moonfaced child who was forced to grow up too quickly.
She always knew that she wanted to be a star and at the age of five years old, Greta was quoted as saying ” I am thinking of growing up and becoming a great actress. ” Even from an early age, Greta was determined to become an actress. In the spring of 1921, she was given her first small role in the film ” Our Daily Bread”, directed by John W. Brunisfrom of the Skandia Film Company. Only Greta’s most intimate friends were aware of what she was doing. Within a year of ” Our Daily Bread” she had small parts in three small films.
Shortly after this, in the summer of 1922 she was discovered by director Erik Petschler in the hat department of Bergstroms where she worked. The actual employment records for the store read: Employment ended: 22/7 1922; Reason for Leaving: to make films. At first she showed no remarkable promise. But after some training and discipline from Frans Ewal, a private coach, she was on her way to being a star. After her training from Ewal she took the ” test” at The Royal Dramatic Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the most difficult acting schools in the world.
She stood alone, on the stage at The Academy in August of 1922, shortly before her thirteenth birthday. ” She remembers going on stage, but she could remember nothing that happened afterward, except the agony of being closely watched, the horror of hearing her own echoing voice and the consciousness that she was alone and that her whole future depended upon her performances in three short extracts from three short plays. ” Actual quote from ” The Great Garbo, by Robert Payne. Three days after her testing at The Academy she received the news that she had been accepted. Greta – ” I was so excited, I thought I would die of oy. ” In the infancy of her career she played in MGM’s silent films such as ” The Torrent” and ” The Temptress” but her most well received were ” Flesh and the Devil” (1926) and ” The Mysterious Lady” (1928). In the 1930’s silent films were on their way out and MGM worked carefully to put together Garbo’s first sound picture ” Anna Christie” (1930), creating the slogan ” Garbo Talks. ” She became known as the Queen of MGM and even though she was nominated for four Oscars for her performance in ” Anna Christie” as Best Actress, as well as other nominations for other films, she never won an Oscar for her film performances.
Greta was MGM’s most valuable and highest paid star of the 1930’s. Some of her legendary films from the 1930’s include; ” Mata Hari” (1931), ” Anna Karenina” (1935), ” Camille” (1936) and her final film ” The Two Faced Woman” (1941) just before her retirement in 1942. From 1931 to 1940 the combined profits of Hollywood’s Big Eight studios totalled $128. 2 million dollars; MGM’s profits were $93. 2 million dollars, nearly three-quarters of the total (online MGM & the Depression era). Greta had a huge influence on these numbers and personified the studios notion of glamour and style.
Greta abandons Hollywood completely when she decided to retire in 1941 and moved to New York City. She spent years jet-setting with the likes of Aristotle Onassis and spurned repeated efforts to coax her out of retirement in later years, living out her signature entreaty, ” I want to be alone. ” Although she never won an Oscar for her film performances, in 1954 she was given the honour of a ” Special Oscar for Past Performances. ” Greta Garbo died in her apartment in New York City on April 15th, 1990 from pneumonia, she was 84 years old.
