I know enough stuff that I am happy to admit when I don't know stuff, and one thing I don't know is what the deal is with the cult of Garbo. I'm not sure if I have ever seen any of her films in their entirety, but I have seen montages and career overviews and she just looks like any other actress to me. She seems rather chilly and remote, pretty of course but not smoking hot (maybe you had to be there) - so what's the deal? What am I missing? And why did she want to be alone?
In honor of Greta Garbo’s 100th birthday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a centennial tribute to her on Thursday, April 7, at 8 p.m., in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The evening will also serve as a kick-off for the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s seven-week screening series “Garbo: The Divine Woman.”
Presented in conjunction with the Consulate General of Sweden, the event will be hosted by Academy Award-nominated actress Lena Olin and will include appearances by actress Joan Leslie and authors Gore Vidal and Gavin Lambert, who are among the few living individuals to have known Garbo.
Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in 1905 in Stockholm, Sweden, Garbo got her start in films in a publicity short for a department store. After training with the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm, she appeared in Mauritz Stiller’s “Gösta Berlings Saga” (“The Atonement of Gösta Berling”), the film which brought her to the attention of MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. While traveling in Europe, Mayer signed Garbo to the contract that would bring her to Hollywood in 1925.
Garbo’s legendary career at MGM included Academy Award nominations for “Anna Christie” (1929/30), “Romance” (1929/30), “Camille” (1937) and “Ninotchka” (1939), as well as memorable roles in “Flesh and the Devil” (1927), “Mata Hari” (1932), “Grand Hotel” (1932) and “Anna Karenina” (1935). In 1941, at the age of 36, Garbo retired to a reclusive life spent in Manhattan, Switzerland and the Riviera. In 1954, the Academy paid tribute to Garbo’s “unforgettable screen performances” with an Honorary Oscar. The actress died in 1990.
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Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
for sure, she's no Kirsten Dunst or Bruce Willis.
2 - Eric Olsen
just another damn Swede
3 - Nick Jones
We've all got to start somewhere; for me it was Ninotchka. Until then, she was just another actress to me, just as Humphrey Bogart was a guy who played gangsters, until I saw The African Queen and Casablanca.
It never occurred to me until I read this thread, but I'll bet Garbo was the genesis of my finding women with accents or lisps/purrs incredibly sexy.
4 - Eric Berlin
Swede + female = good
5 - Eric Olsen
thanks Nick, that's a start
6 - audrey
Garbo ROCKS! She is pure magic. Have you not seen those incredible photos of her? Have you not seen CAMILLE? Her acting, her face, her voice. She was the only one called 'divine.' And btw, she was not 'pretty', she was GORGEOUS. As an aside, her incredible eyelashes were REAL, not fake like most glamourous stars of the day.
7 - Eric Olsen
you told me, Audrey
8 - Eric Olsen
perhaps she looks too much like some of my (Norwegian) relatives to seem stunning and exotic to me
9 - Al Barger
Granted, Garbo was pretty hot, but she was no Mary-Kate or Ashley.
10 - Victor Plenty
Even Mary-Kate and Ashley are no Mary-Kate or Ashley, Al.
11 - Al Barger
Victor, I'll thank you to speak nicer of the future mothers of my children.
12 - nordicgal
SEXUAL, SENSUAL , ADORABLE ALL IN ONE GARBO!!!!
13 - Eric Olsen
glad to see some Garbo support
14 - Greta Garbo Fanpage
Hello Eric Olsen,
Thanks for all the wonderful information about Greta Garbo.
Happy Greetings
:-)
15 - scottlord
thank you