ACTOR
Greta Garbo
- Known for
- Die freudlose Gasse (1925), Gösta Berlings saga (1924)
70 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Greta Garbo is an actor best known for Die freudlose Gasse and Gösta Berlings saga.
All facts (70)
- #001
Greta Garbo left John Gilbert at the altar in 1927 when he hesitated about marrying her.
- #002
She disliked Clark Gable, and the feeling was mutual. She saw him as a snob, while he thought her acting was wooden.
- #003
She was criticized for not helping the Allies during World War II, but it later emerged that she aided Britain by identifying influential Nazi sympathizers in Stockholm and by introducing and carrying messages for British agents.
- #004
She became a US citizen in 1951.
- #005
During filming, whenever something displeased her she would simply say, "I think I'll go back to Sweden!" — which so frightened the studio executives that they gave in to her every demand.
- #006
It is believed that she lived as a recluse in her post-Hollywood career, but this is untrue. She was a genuine jet-setter who traveled with international tycoons and society figures. In the 1970s she traveled less and became increasingly eccentric, but still took daily walks in Central Park with close friends and walkers. In the late 1980s her deteriorating health reduced her mobility. In her final year it was her family who cared for her, including taking her to dialysis treatments. She died with them.
- #007
She never married, invested wisely and was known for her extreme thriftiness.
- #008
Director Clarence Brown said of her: "[Working with her] was easy because she trusted me. I never directed her beyond a whisper. She was very shy, so we would make the changes I wanted in a quiet whisper in the corner, without letting others know what I was telling her. I learned from experience that behind Garbo's eyes there was something that told the whole story I couldn't see from a distance. Sometimes I wasn't satisfied with a shot but I went ahead and printed it. Yet Garbo multiplied the effect of the scene I shot on screen. That was something no one has ever had."
- #009
Her personal favorite among all her films was Camille (1936).
- #010
Her erratic mentor and director Mauritz Stiller, who brought her to Hollywood, was suddenly fired from directing her second MGM film, The Temptress (1926), after repeated arguments with studio executives. Unable to find work in Hollywood, he returned to Sweden in 1928 and died shortly afterward at the age of 45. Garbo was devastated.
- #011
She was reportedly one of Gary Cooper's favorite actresses. She received offers from him for several films, but nothing ever came of them.
- #012
She was the first Swedish actress to be nominated for an Oscar. The others are Ingrid Bergman, Lena Olin, Ann-Margret and Oscar winner Alicia Vikander. The only nominated Swedish actor is Max von Sydow.
- #013
A photograph of her, probably cut from a film magazine, was one of the various pictures of movie stars, royalty, artworks and family members used as decoration on the wall of Anne Frank's room in the "Secret Annex" in Amsterdam, where Anne and her family hid from July 1942 until their capture by the Nazis in August 1944.
- #014
In 2015 she appeared on the Swedish 50-krona banknote.
- #015
In the 1930s she made trench coats and berets popular.
- #016
Her parents were Karl and Anna Gustafson, and she also had a sister and brother named Alva Garbo and Sven Garbo. Her father died of nephritis when she was 14, and her sister died of lymphatic cancer when she was 21.
- #017
Her sets were closed to all visitors, sometimes even to the director. Asked why, she said: "On these scenes I allow only the cameraman and the lighting man on the set. The director goes out to drink coffee or a milkshake. When people watch, I'm just a woman making faces at the camera. It destroys the illusion. If I'm alone, my face does things I couldn't otherwise do."
- #018
She actually hoped to return to cinema after the war, but for whatever reason no project ever came to fruition.
- #019
She was named the 8th Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Premiere Magazine".
- #020
The image on the 37¢ US commemorative postage stamp issued on September 23, 2005, five days after her 100th birthday. That same day, Sweden issued a 10-krona stamp with the same design. The similarity of the stamps was based on a photograph taken during the filming of As You Desire Me (1932).
- #021
Apart from the very beginning of her career, she never gave an interview, never signed an autograph, never attended a premiere and never answered a single fan letter.
- #022
In late 1934, after Queen Christina (1933) and The Painted Veil (1934), both of which were big hits in Europe (earning twice their budgets in the United Kingdom alone) but overwhelming successes in the US, she signed a contract with MGM stating that she would make films only under the direction of David O. Selznick and Irving Thalberg. Her next two films, Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936), achieved notable success in US box office receipts and were produced by Selznick and Thalberg respectively. In 1937, because Selznick had left the studio in 1935 and Thalberg had died, her contract had to be revised. After "Camille" she made only three films.
- #023
She once lived at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles (8221 Sunset Boulevard).
- #024
Director Jacques Feyder recalled working with her: "Work can begin at 9 o'clock. 'Tell Miss Garbo we are ready,' says the director. A low voice answers and she appears, perfectly dressed and coiffed for the needs of the scene. No one can say which door she came through, but she is there. And at 6 in the evening, even if the shooting could be finished within five minutes, she points to the clock. She is very strict with herself and not very satisfied with her work, yet a few days later, early in the afternoon, she enters a cinema in the outskirts alone, sits in a cheap seat and only comes out when the projection is over, putting on her sunglasses."
- #025
The letters and correspondence between her and the poet/socialite/notorious lesbian Mercedes de Acosta were revealed on April 15, 2000, exactly ten years after Garbo's death (according to De Acosta's instructions). The letters revealed that, contrary to what was said, there was no love affair between the two.
- #026
She was chosen by "Entertainment Weekly" as the 25th Greatest Movie Star of all time.
- #027
Her greatest confidante was her German friend Salka Viertel, who had known her in Sweden. Viertel proved to manipulate her greatly, including her relationships (especially with Mercedes de Acosta), her film choices and her life in general. In fact, it was Viertel who persuaded her not to return to cinema. Ironically, Viertel was friends with Marlene Dietrich, Garbo's enemy, whom Salka had known from Germany's Weimar Republic period, and she had a lot of dirt on Dietrich's deepest secrets and past. Garbo's film choices were largely determined by Salka's persuasion; they appeared together in the German version of Anna Christie (1930), and shortly afterwards Garbo insisted that Salka be placed on the MGM payroll as a writer of her films.
- #028
When she heard that David O. Selznick, who had produced her hit film Anna Karenina (1935), would leave MGM in 1935 to found his own studio, she begged him to stay and promised to let him personally supervise all her pictures. He said it would be a great honor but that he had other plans. Ironically, Garbo's other favorite producer, the usually very meticulous Irving Thalberg, was the first to give Selznick money ($200,000) to found his company.
- #029
She was once chosen by the Guinness Book of Records as the most beautiful woman who ever lived.
- #030
Before achieving great success, she worked as a soap latherer in a barbershop in Sweden.
- #031
According to Michael Parkinson's 1974 interview with Orson Welles, Garbo had made two bread commercials for use in the theater before changing her name. The films were available at the time in the Stockholm archive.
- #032
She was buried in Skogskyrkogården Cemetery, Stockholm, Sweden.
- #033
Director Albert Lewin, on casting the lead in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945): "One day I received a message from Cedric Gibbons wanting to see me about an urgent and confidential matter. Gibby was Greta Garbo's only close friend at the studio and had been tasked with telling me that Garbo wanted to play Dorian. Indeed, it was the only role for which she would return to the screen. Of course I changed the place and the setting. But everyone had a crisis: the already difficult censorship problem would have become insurmountable for a woman."
- #034
According to her friend, producer William Frye, he offered Garbo 1 million dollars to play the Mother Superior in his film The Trouble with Angels (1966). When she refused, he cast Rosalind Russell for a much lower salary.
- #035
Her first film was in a short commercial shown in local theaters in Stockholm.
- #036
Greta Garbo was Adolf Hitler's favorite actress.
- #037
In 2006, Premiere Magazine ranked her performance as Ninotchka in Ninotchka (1939) 25th on its list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
- #038
She spent the last few years of her life in complete seclusion.
- #039
Her first talkie was Anna Christie (1930).
- #040
Throughout her MGM career, she insisted that William H. Daniels be the cinematographer on her films. This may not have been pure superstition, since the two major films she made without him (Conquest (1937) and Two-Faced Woman (1941)) were her only notable flops.
- #041
One of Norwegian Air Shuttle's Boeing 737s carries a portrait of her on its tail. She is one of their "Tail Fin Heroes."
- #042
Garbo and her (allegedly) large feet were spoofed in the 1941 Merrie Melodies cartoon "Hollywood Steps Out."
- #043
She was voted the 5th Greatest Female Screen Legend on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
- #044
She is related to Anna Sundstrand of the Swedish pop group Play.
- #045
She was portrayed by Kristina Wayborn in The Silent Lovers (1980).
- #046
She is mentioned in Kim Carnes's song "Bette Davis Eyes."
- #047
She is one of the many film stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue."
- #048
It was reported many times that the famous columnist and television reporter Barbara Walters would retire from her career if she ever landed an interview with Greta Garbo. This was at the height of Ms. Walters's career (the 1980s). By nature, Ms. Garbo never accepted her invitation.
- #049
As the popularity of the Max Fleischer Studios cartoon character Betty Boop grew in the early 1930s, the studio placed an ad in the film industry trade papers in October 1931 stating that Betty Boop combined Mary Brian's simplicity, Norma Shearer's refinement, (Greta) Garbo's fire, Joan Bennett's sweetness and (Marlene) Dietrich's allure.
- #050
She kept her skin flawless by scrubbing it every day with soap and a stiff brush. She hated her very fine, curly hair, so she probably wore it scraped back from her face or hidden under a beret.
- #051
When she received the news on the set of "Camille" (1936) that John Gilbert had died, she immediately burst into tears without hesitation and, as she was led to her dressing room on Laura Hope Crews's arm for emotional support, she declared while walking across the sound stage that the biggest mistake of her life had been losing the chance to marry him.
- #052
According to psychologists, Greta Garbo Syndrome is a term used to describe celebrities, or people in general, withdrawing from social life and losing the meaning in their lives.
- #053
In October 1997, she was ranked 38th on Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
- #054
She was the sister of Sven and Alva.
- #055
Greta Garbo is mentioned in The Kinks' song "Celluloid Heroes."
- #056
Greta Garbo was mentioned in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
- #057
In April 2019, Greta Garbo was honored as Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month.
- #058
According to David Bret's 2012 biography Greta Garbo: A Divine Star, Garbo made her final film appearance without her knowledge in the 1974 gay pornographic film Adam & Yves (1974). The XXX film's camera operator, Jack Deveau, was obsessed with Garbo and had recently filmed her on First Avenue in New York City through a telephoto lens; wearing a trench coat and hat, she briefly stopped to speak with a passerby and then crossed the street. The footage was later incorporated into the story as a flashback in which one of the main characters recounts how he actually met Greta Garbo, the most exciting moment of the other's life.
- #059
Garbo's last film was one in which she unknowingly appeared, uncredited, in the 1974 adult gay-audience film Adam And Yves. She was filmed without her awareness as she left her home and walked through various New York streets. The footage was included in the film with a narrative showing the main character's long-standing admiration for the famous reclusive star. It is unclear whether Garbo ever became aware of this.
- #060
Greta Garbo was the great-aunt of Derek Reisfield and Scott Reisfield, the children of Gray Reisfield and Donald Reisfield.
- #061
In Italy, Garbo's early films (such as Mata Hari (1931) and Grand Hotel (1932)) were dubbed by Francesca Braggiotti. Because Braggiotti had lived in the United States for many years and had a slight American accent, the Italian public did not much accept her voice, and Italian Tina Lattanzi was instead chosen as Garbo's official Italian voice (she even re-dubbed Mata Hari (1931)). Garbo's last two films, Ninotchka (1939) and Two-Faced Woman (1941), were dubbed by Andreina Pagnani. When some Garbo films were re-released in Italy in the 1960s, they were dubbed once again. Stage actress Anna Proclemer thus lent her voice to the divine Garbo.
- #062
Greta Garbo was an important acquaintance, lover and correspondent of Sydney Guilaroff.
- #063
Greta Garbo was the aunt of Gray Reisfield (daughter of Sven Gustafson).
- #064
In 1949, Walter Wanger persuaded Garbo to pose for video screen tests shot by William Daniels for a possible return to filmmaking, but the production never materialized.
- #065
Greta Garbo appeared in two films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Grand Hotel (1932) and Ninotchka (1939). The first won in the category.
- #066
Greta Garbo is mentioned in Lloyd Cole & The Commotions' song "Perfect Skin."
- #067
Greta Garbo died on the day Emma Watson was born.
- #068
In 2022, according to YouTuber Truffles on the Rocks, the Greta Garbo Cocktail was created. It is a daiquiri made of rum, lime and sugar, made interesting with a touch of absinthe and sweet, earthy maraschino liqueur.
- #069
Greta Garbo is mentioned in the lyrics of Bunny Berigan's "I Can't Get Started."
- #070
Greta Garbo died on Easter Sunday.
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