biography
| name: |
Garbo, Greta
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originally Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1905–90)
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| biography:
| Film actress, born in Stockholm, Sweden. A shop-girl who won a bathing beauty contest at age 16, she made some publicity short films and studied acting before gaining international recognition in Mauritz Stiller's Swedish film, The Story of Gosta Berling (1924). She went to Hollywood (1924) with Stiller, her mentor and companion, and they worked together on The Torrent (1926), but he soon returned to Sweden while she stayed on to become known as ‘The Swedish Sphinx’, reflecting her aloofness and cool beauty. Promoted by the resources of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, she became an international star, especially after her first talking picture, Anna Christie (1930). Although she made only 13 more films and retired abruptly in 1941, she came to personify all that was most alluring yet unattainable about film stars. She became an American citizen in 1951, and in 1954 was awarded a special Oscar. Although linked with several men, she never married, and became a recluse in her final decades. |
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