Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo (1905 to 1990), born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, was a Swedish-born actress who became one of the great stars of Hollywood's silent era and one of the few to succeed in sound films. She grew up in a poor household, worked in a barbershop and a department store, and was noticed through short advertising films before studying at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. The director Mauritz Stiller cast her in Gösta Berlings Saga in 1924, and the film brought her and Stiller to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she moved to Hollywood in 1925. Her first American film, The Torrent, was a box-office success. Her voice was first heard in Anna Christie in 1930, which earned her an Academy Award nomination, and she was nominated again for Romance, Camille and Ninotchka. She was known for an intensely private life and for leaving acting at the height of her fame, and in 1954 she received a special honorary Academy Award.