Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Stockholm on 18 September 1905, into a working-class family. After appearances in advertising and Swedish films, she studied at the acting school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Director Mauritz Stiller gave her a major role in “Gösta Berlings saga”, helped choose the stage name Greta Garbo and accompanied her on the path that led to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the United States.

In silent film, Garbo was admired for a restrained expressiveness built on close-up rather than broad gesture. The move to sound, hard for many performers of her generation, strengthened her career. Her voice was launched commercially with the line “Garbo talks!” for “Anna Christie” (1930).

Productions including “Grand Hotel”, “Queen Christina”, “Camille” and the comedy “Ninotchka” followed. Her performances brought several Academy Award nominations. In 1955 the Academy presented her with an honorary Oscar for her contribution to cinema — a career recognition, not a prize for a single role that year.

She retired after “Two-Faced Woman”, released in 1941, at the age of 36. She lived away from film sets and protected the details of her private life. That discretion fed an aura of mystery; it is not an invitation to biographical speculation. This article stays with the documented career.

Garbo died in New York in 1990, aged 84. Her influence is read in the history of screen acting, studio stardom and the silent-to-sound transition, not in a catalogue of rumours about her withdrawal.

At 121 years from her birth, the stable sources are the Encyclopaedia Britannica biography, the Academy collections and the Swedish Film Institute archive. They keep filmography and the dates of birth, emigration and death separate from fan-magazine mythology.

Image: Greta Garbo, 1925 / Wikimedia Commons. A period portrait, not a still from the MGM films cited. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Greta Garbo | Encyclopaedia Britannica; Greta Garbo | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.