“Goodbye” Greta Garbo – Died 15 April 1990

Greta Garbo (18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990), born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress and icon during Hollywood’s silent and classic periods. Garbo was nominated four times for an Academy Award, receiving an honorary one in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances”. She also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for both Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936

Garbo launched her career in the 1924 Swedish film The Saga of Gosta Berling. This performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925.  Her first silent film, Torrent, was released in 1926 and  a year later, her performance in Flesh and the Devil, her third movie, made her an international star.

With her first talking film, Anna Christie (1930), she received an Academy Award nomination.  A second Oscar nomination followed for her performance in Romance.  Her role as Marguerite Gautier in Camille earned her a third Academy Award nomination and  the comedy Ninotchka (1939), earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination. She made her last film in 1941, Two-Faced Woman (1941).

In 1941, she retired at the age of 35 after appearing in twenty-eight films. She lived the remainder of her life shunning publicity.