Greta Garbo, orig. Greta Louisa Gustafsson, (born Sept. 18, 1905, Stockholm, Swed.—died April 15, 1990, New York, N.Y., U.S.), Swedish-U.S. film star. She was working as a salesclerk when she was chosen to appear in publicity films for the store where she worked. Her modest success encouraged her to study at the Royal Dramatic Theatre’s training school, where the film director Mauritz Stiller discovered her. He cast her in The Story of Gösta Berling (1924) and became her mentor and coach. Stiller and Garbo were hired by MGM in 1925, and Garbo’s beauty and enigmatic personality made her a star in her first U.S. film, The Torrent (1926). Aloof, mysterious, yet passionate, she mesmerized audiences in films such as Love (1927), Anna Christie (1930), Grand Hotel (1932), Anna Karenina (1935), Camille (1936), and Ninotchka (1939). Her reclusive life after her sudden retirement at age 36 added to her mystique.
