58 Fun Facts About Greta Garbo

In which city was Greta Garbo born in 1905?

Stockholm's working-class Södermalm district was her childhood home, and the city took her back in the end: her ashes were interred there in 1999, nine years after she died in New York.

What was Garbo's surname at birth?

Gustafsson became Garbo while she was still a drama student; the director who gave her a first major film role is usually credited with choosing the new name.

Where did the young Garbo's family nickname, 'Kata', come from?

Her own mispronunciation of Greta, from her toddler days, stuck as a family nickname; the shy girl behind it left school at 13 and was soon nursing her sick father.

Which director cast the drama student Garbo in The Saga of Gösta Berling and became her mentor?

Mauritz Stiller went to Hollywood with her, but while she became a star he quarrelled with two studios, returned to Sweden and died soon afterwards.

Garbo's first major film, The Saga of Gösta Berling, was based on the debut novel of which Nobel Prize-winning author?

Selma Lagerlöf's novel went almost unnoticed in Sweden until its Danish translation was acclaimed; in 1909 she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Garbo's 1925 film Die freudlose Gasse (Joyless Street), made in Berlin, was directed by whom?

G. W. Pabst showed hunger and vice in inflation-era Vienna so starkly that censors in several countries cut the film heavily, and versions of different lengths circulated for decades.

Which MGM chief brought Garbo to Hollywood in 1925 after seeing her in Gösta Berling?

Louis B. Mayer's studio was so impressed by the rushes of her first Hollywood film that her salary was raised before it was even released.

MGM retitled a 1927 Garbo romance so that posters could pair her and her co-star 'in' what?

Love let the posters announce the two stars 'in Love', cashing in on gossip about their real-life romance; MGM also shot a happy ending for American audiences.

In Torrent, her first American film, Garbo played a Spanish peasant girl who becomes what?

An opera star: the mentor who had come to Hollywood with her was passed over as director for Monta Bell, yet the newcomer triumphed without him.

Which silent film, Garbo's third in America, made her an international star?

Flesh and the Devil drew crowds partly on gossip that its screen passion was no act: she and her co-star had begun a real romance during filming.

Which leading man co-starred in Garbo's breakthrough American film and became her off-screen lover?

John Gilbert is said to have been left waiting on their wedding day; years later she insisted that the fading star play opposite her in Queen Christina.

The scandalous bestseller The Green Hat reached the screen in 1928 as which retitled Garbo film?

A Woman of Affairs disguised its origins to placate the censors: the novel's title and character names were dropped, and the disease at the heart of its plot became embezzlement.

Garbo demanded black screens on set, explaining that if alone, her face would do what?

Things it could not do otherwise, she said; visitors were barred from her sets too, because being watched made her feel like 'just a woman making faces for the camera'.

Garbo's last silent film, released in 1929, shares its title with a famous 1896 Edison short; what is it?

The Kiss was the last silent the studio made: fearing how her accent would come across, MGM put off her sound debut for as long as it could.

Garbo's first sound film, Anna Christie (1930), adapted a play by which dramatist?

Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer-winning play had a Swedish-American heroine, so MGM chose it for her sound debut: the accent the studio had feared now suited the part.

In Anna Christie, Garbo's first words ever spoken on screen are an order for which drink?

Whisky, with ginger ale on the side: delivered in a husky, accented voice, the line was widely quoted and became a classic.

Which MGM colleague beat Garbo to the Best Actress Oscar for her Anna Christie nomination?

Norma Shearer won for The Divorcee, the first of several defeats for Garbo: despite repeated nominations she never won a competitive Oscar.

After finishing Anna Christie in English, Garbo shot a second version of the film in which language?

German was the choice because, before dubbing, studios reshot their hits for export: she remade the film on the same sets with a new director and a new cast.

Which rising MGM star made his only film with Garbo in Susan Lenox (1931)?

Clark Gable never worked with her again; in Britain the film was cut and renamed The Rise of Helga to get past the censors.

In Mata Hari, Garbo played the World War I spy opposite which leading man?

Ramón Novarro plays a Russian pilot; in a famous seduction scene she persuades him to blow out the votive candle he keeps burning, as proof of his surrender.

What profession does Garbo's Grusinskaya have in the 1932 MGM film that won Best Picture?

Ballerina: the fading Russian dancer is close to ending her life when she finds a thief in her room, a penniless baron after her jewels, and loses her heart to him.

What makes Garbo's 1932 film as Grusinskaya unique among Best Picture winners?

It had no other nominations: the archetypal all-star film, with five big names sharing the bill, took the top prize without a single nod for any of them.

The AFI's 30th most memorable movie quote, 'I want to be alone', comes from which Garbo film?

Grand Hotel's weary plea followed her for life, though she protested that what she had really said off screen was 'I want to be let alone'.

How does the reign of Garbo's monarch end in Queen Christina?

Abdication: she gives up her throne to sail away with a Spanish envoy, only to lose him to a rival's sword; the real Christina also abdicated, in 1654.

Which British actor was brought to Hollywood to play opposite Garbo in Queen Christina, only to be replaced?

Laurence Olivier showed no spark with her on camera, so Garbo insisted on her former lover instead, a fading silent idol making his last film with her.

For Queen Christina's famous final shot, Rouben Mamoulian wanted Garbo's face to be what?

A blank piece of paper, he told her, so that every member of the audience could write their own feelings on it; he even asked her not to blink as the camera closed in.

Garbo's close friend Mercedes de Acosta wrote a screenplay for her to play which historical figure?

Joan of Arc had already been the subject of a de Acosta stage play in the 1920s; she reworked it for Garbo in 1934, but the film was never made.

Garbo turned down the dying heiress in Dark Victory to instead make which 1935 literary adaptation?

Anna Karenina won her the New York critics' prize, while the dying heiress she passed up went to Bette Davis four years later and brought Davis an Oscar nomination.

Before the Golden Lion existed, Garbo's 1935 film won which top Venice Film Festival prize?

The Mussolini Cup, named for Italy's dictator, was Venice's top award from 1934 until he fell in 1943; the Golden Lion did not arrive until 1949.

Which director guided Garbo's performance as the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier in Camille?

George Cukor had just sat with his dying mother, and Garbo said he showed her how the dying fold their hands and simply fall asleep.

Which actor played Armand opposite Garbo in Camille?

Robert Taylor was kept at arm's length off camera: her director said she knew that if they became friendly she'd learn he was just another nice kid.

Garbo's Camille was based on a novel and play by which French author?

Alexandre Dumas fils based his doomed courtesan on Marie Duplessis, a real lover of his who died at 23; Verdi turned the same story into La traviata.

The 1938 trade advert that branded Garbo 'box office poison' was placed by a group representing whom?

Independent theatre owners complained that such stars cost studios a fortune yet no longer filled seats at home: Garbo, the advert conceded, drew her crowds in Europe.

Ninotchka (1939), Garbo's first departure from drama, was directed by whom?

Ernst Lubitsch teased Stalin's Russia so freely that the film was banned in the Soviet Union; at home it revived Garbo's faltering career.

Which future director co-wrote the Ninotchka screenplay with Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch?

Billy Wilder had fled Berlin when the Nazis took power in 1933 and reached Hollywood speaking little English; six years later this script earned him his first Oscar nomination.

In Ninotchka, Garbo's stern Soviet envoy is sent to which city to rescue a sale of jewels seized in the revolution?

Paris has already seduced the three comrades sent ahead of her, and the city, with help from one persistent count, soon thaws the stern envoy too.

Who played opposite Garbo in both Ninotchka and her final film Two-Faced Woman?

Melvyn Douglas was paired with her again in the hope of repeating a hit; instead the second film drew the worst reviews of her career and proved to be her last.

Garbo's refusal to give interviews or explain herself earned her which nickname in the press?

The Swedish Sphinx signed no autographs, answered no fan mail and skipped her own premieres, yet in fleeing publicity she became one of the most publicised women in the world.

Garbo's Two-Faced Woman drew a 'C' (condemned) rating from which body, unusual for a major studio release?

The National Legion of Decency's verdict was echoed by the Archbishop of New York, and MGM pulled the film to reshoot scenes; the new cut was upgraded to a 'B'.

In Two-Faced Woman Garbo's character pretends to be what in order to win back her husband?

Her own twin sister: the ski instructor invents a worldly, rumba-dancing twin to tempt her straying husband, part of the studio's bid to give her a modern American image.

Who beat Garbo's Ninotchka to the Best Actress Oscar?

Vivien Leigh won for Gone with the Wind, which swept the awards; Garbo never did win a competitive Oscar, so the Academy later voted her an honorary one.

Which Cole Porter song rhymes 'Garbo's salary' with 'the National Gallery'?

You're the Top, from 1934, ranked her pay beside the Mona Lisa and Mickey Mouse because it was famously vast: she was then among the highest-paid women in America.

Which Madonna hit names Greta Garbo first in its spoken roll call of Hollywood legends?

Vogue put the star who had hidden from publicity for half a century at the head of a chart-topping roll call; it came out only weeks before she died in April 1990.

Which Philadelphia Orchestra conductor's travels through Europe with Garbo in 1938 made headlines?

Leopold Stokowski, newly divorced, holidayed with her in Italy while the press speculated feverishly; whether it was ever a romance has never been settled.

Which British photographer described a late-1940s romance with Garbo in his memoirs and hoped to marry her?

Cecil Beaton found himself competing with George Schlee, her constant companion and adviser; the marriage never happened, though the two stayed friends for years.

In Peter the Tramp, a 1922 Swedish slapstick film, what did the teenage Garbo play?

A bathing beauty: the actress later famous for suffering nobly on screen began by frolicking in a swimsuit, in the same year she entered drama school.

Garbo fronts Sweden's 100-krona banknote; which film director is on the 200-krona note?

Ingmar Bergman's note shows Fårö on its reverse, because he made his home on the Baltic island and shot many of his films there.

Garbo ranked fifth on the AFI's 1999 list of greatest female stars; who came first?

Katharine Hepburn topped the list, a sweet turnaround: in 1938 she and Garbo had both been written off in the trade press as 'box office poison'.

Which MGM executive gave Garbo a screen test, then ordered English lessons and a makeover?

Irving Thalberg then built her screen image film by film, casting the shy newcomer again and again as a cool, worldly sophisticate.

MGM sold Garbo's first sound film with a two-word tagline: her surname followed by which verb?

'Garbo Talks!' worked so well that MGM echoed it nine years later, selling Ninotchka with 'Garbo Laughs!'

In Ninotchka's famous restaurant scene, what finally makes Garbo's stern envoy burst out laughing?

Her suitor falls off his chair after all his jokes have failed; her co-star later claimed that on set she laughed without making a sound.

Garbo trained as an actress from 1922 to 1924 at the school of which Swedish theatre?

The Royal Dramatic Theatre's school gave her a scholarship, and it was there, as a student, that a leading film director found her and cast her in her first major role.

What was the teenage Garbo's first job, before she became a department-store clerk?

Barber's lather girl: she soaped customers' faces for the razor, then moved to a department store, where posing for its catalogue first put her in front of a camera.

Which early Garbo film sold plenty of tickets yet lost money, after MGM fired its director and reshot it?

The Temptress took nearly a million dollars, but weeks of footage were scrapped and reshot after the director's dismissal, pushing its costs past its takings.

In Conquest (1937), Garbo played Marie Walewska opposite which actor as Napoleon?

Charles Boyer earned an Oscar nomination as Napoleon, but the lavish film cost so much that it lost well over a million dollars, one of MGM's worst flops of the decade.

How did the retired Garbo respond when the Academy voted her an honorary Oscar?

She stayed away from the ceremony, as she had on every Oscar night when nominated; the award honoured 'unforgettable screen performances' that had never won a competitive prize.

To whom did Garbo leave her entire estate when she died in 1990?

Her niece, Gray Reisfield, her brother's daughter, inherited everything: Garbo never married or had children, and her fortune had grown through shrewd investments.

Which president hosted Garbo at a private White House dinner just days before his death?

John F. Kennedy set up the dinner partly as a practical joke on his old friend Lem Billings, who had met the star before; nine days later the president was shot in Dallas.