Greta Garbo, the Swedish-born actress whose haunting beauty and enigmatic nature made her one of the screen's most memorable and mysterious stars, died under the same shroud of secrecy that veiled her life.
The reclusive Hollywood legend died Sunday at New York Hospital at age 84. Hospital officials said funeral services would be private and no further information would be released at the request of Garbo's family."New York Hospital announces with great sadness the death of Greta Garbo," hospital spokesman Andrew Banoff said Sunday evening in a brief statement that revealed no details about the time or cause of Garbo's death.
The CBS Radio Network, citing friends of the actress, reported that she recently had been undergoing kidney dialysis at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
Garbo enjoyed a meteoric rise from a barbershop soap latherer to history's most glamorous film actress. The arrestingly beautiful screen star's fame was rivaled only by her mysterious desire for privacy.
She retired from moviemaking in 1941 as one of the most impressive box office draws in the entertainment industry. From then she made her home in New York but traveled widely through Europe, always under the cloak of anonymity.
Garbo was born Greta Gustafsson in Stockholm on Sept. 18, 1905, the youngest daughter of Karl Gustafsson, an uneducated day laborer.
The Swedish director Mauritz Stiller "discovered" her, changed her name to Greta Garbo and made her the star of his successful movie, "The Saga of Gosta Berling."
A turning point in Garbo's career came when Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer chanced to see "The Saga of Gosta Berling" in 1925. He urged Stiller to migrate to Hollywood, and the director agreed on the condition he could bring his young protegee with him under contract.
As soon as American film audiences caught a glimpse of his star, they were hooked. Her first Hollywood picture, "The Torrent," scored an instant success.
The first phrase she uttered in her first sound movie, "Gif me a viskey," became famous. The ads for "Anna Christie" proclaimed: "Garbo Talks!" For "Ninotchka," her only comedy, the ads shrieked: "Garbo Laughs!"
With the passing of the years, Garbo's command of English improved but never became fluent. Perhaps her best known words were, "I vant to be alone" and "I tank I go home." She consistently frustrated newsmen and even producers with her extraordinary shyness. She dodged reporters in and out of the United States and Europe, hiding behind dark glasses and high coat collars.
She became an American citizen in 1940. She never married, but she was linked romantically with several men, including Leopold Stokowski, John Gilbert, director Rouben Mamoulian, health writer Gayelord Hauser, financier Eric Rothschild-Goldschmidt and businessman George Schley.
List of Grabo's films
Here is a complete list of Greta Garbo's films. Titles of her early, silent pictures made in Europe vary. From 1926, all were made in Hollywood.
1922:
"Peter the Tramp" (Sweden)
1924:
"The Saga of Gosta Berling" (Sweden)
1925:
"The Street of Sorrow" (Germany)
1926:
"The Torrent," "The Temptress" (U.S.)
1927:
"Flesh and the Devil," "Love," "The Mysterious Lady"
1928: "The Divine Woman"
1929: "The Kiss," "A Woman of Affairs," "Wild Orchids," "The Single Standard"
1930: "Anna Christie," "Romance"
1931: "Inspiration," "Susan Lenox," "Mata Hari"
1932: "Grand Hotel," "As You Desire Me"
1933: "Queen Christina"
1934: "The Painted Veil"
1935: "Anna Karenina"
1936: "Camille"
1937: "Conquest"
1939: "Ninotchka"
1941: "Two Faced Woman"