--- name: "Greta Garbo" canonical: "https://film.one/person/greta-garbo" roles: ["Actor"] born: "18 September 1905" died: "15 April 1990" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-20T00:13:02.285527+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Greta Garbo Actor. Born 18 September 1905 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. Died 15 April 1990. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 18 September 1905, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden - **Died:** 15 April 1990 - **Also known as:** Greta Gustafsson, Грета Ловиса Густафссон, Грета Густафссон - **Academy Awards:** 3 Oscar nominations - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5443, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001256/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19549 ## Fi1m on Greta Garbo > Garbo's trade was doing less than anyone else in the frame and letting the camera come to her. It made her the saddest face in Hollywood for a decade, and *Ninotchka* is the proof that the stillness was a choice. Watch her wait. In the first forty minutes of *Ninotchka* (1939) Garbo asks a Paris porter why he wants to carry her bags, tells a count to stop flirting, and looks at a hat in a shop window as though it were evidence, and her face barely moves through any of it. That is the whole method. The head goes down a little, the lips flutter, and the camera, usually William H. Daniels's, comes in close and does the rest. Other actors of the period worked to be looked at. Garbo let it happen. The career has one shape. She came out of Sweden in Mauritz Stiller's *The Saga of Gösta Berling* (1924), and Stiller got her the MGM contract that brought her to Hollywood in 1925. The silents made her a star, *Flesh and the Devil* (1926) chief among them, and *Anna Christie* (1930) proved the voice worked; the studio sold that on two words and an exclamation mark, and would use the trick again. Then came the decade of dying beautifully: *Grand Hotel* (1932), where she asked to be alone and was never afterwards allowed to be, *Queen Christina* (1933), *Anna Karenina* (1935), *Camille* (1936). After *Ninotchka* there was *Two-Faced Woman* (1941), and then nothing. She stopped, and she did not come back. The doubt about her has always been the same one: whether doing so little is acting at all, or whether the face was doing the work and the actor was simply standing behind it. It is a fair question, and *Ninotchka* is the best answer we have. Lubitsch's joke only works if the stillness is deliberate, because the film spends forty minutes daring her to break it. When Melvyn Douglas falls off his chair in the café and she finally laughs, we laughed too, and then found ourselves more moved than a pratfall should manage, because she had held that face so long that letting go of it felt like a confession. She chose the moment. A face cannot choose. She needed the right people around her and, in 1939 at least, had them. Daniels lit her hard and flat when Ninotchka arrives and softer as Paris gets to her, and Adrian put her in a suit that looked issued rather than bought. Clarence Sinclair Bull photographed her hundreds of times off the set, and the stills are a fair guide to the films: the face at rest, waiting. The limit of the method is that it needs a director willing to hold on her and a script willing to wait. Lubitsch understood that, and the last half hour of his film, when the script stops waiting and starts hurrying, is the weakest stretch she is in. Start with *Ninotchka*, which is the one we can vouch for and the one that shows the trick with the lights on. Then go back to the dying, knowing that none of the stillness was an accident. ## Biography Greta Garbo was a Swedish-American actress. Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden, she trained at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and made her film debut in a small role in Luffar-Petter (1922). She gained prominence in The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) before signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Garbo starred in numerous films during the silent and early sound eras, including Flesh and the Devil (1926), Anna Christie (1930), Grand Hotel (1932), Queen Christina (1934), Anna Karenina (1935), Camille (1936) and Ninotchka (1939). She received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Anna Christie, Romance (1930) and Camille, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1955. Her final film was Two-Faced Woman (1941). She became a US citizen in 1951 and died in New York City in 1990. *Sources: britannica.com, imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Ninotchka* (1939), Fi1m 82, as Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova — [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) ## Complete filmography (54) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Marriage of Greta Garbo and Sergei Eiseinstein* (2023), Actor - *1939: Secrets of Hollywood's Golden Year* (2023), series, Actor - *Destins secrets d’étoiles - Grace, Jackie, Liz, Marilyn…* (2015), Actor - *Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen* (2012), as (archive footage) - *Sigrid Holmquist* (2010), as Sigrid Holmquist (archive footage) - *Hollywood sul Tevere* (2009), Actor - *Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood* (2008), as Queen Christina (archive footage) - *Stjärnbilder* (1995), as (archive footage) - *The Casting Couch* (1995), Actor - *Minns ni?* (1993), as (archive footage) - *The Meeting of Two Queens* (1991), as (archive footage) - *Stiller, Garbo & jag* (1988), as (archive footage) - *That's Entertainment, Part II* (1976), as (archive footage) - *Marlowe* (1969), as Grusinskaya(archive footage) (uncredited) - *The Big Parade of Comedy* (1964), as Ninotchka in 'Ninotchka' (archive footage) - *30 Years of Fun* (1963), as (archive footage) - *MGM Parade* (1955), series, Actor - *Two-Faced Woman* (1941), as Karin Borg Blake - *Ninotchka* (1939), as Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) - *Conquest* (1937), as Countess Marie Walewska - *Camille* (1936), as Marguerite Gautier - *Anna Karenina* (1935), as Anna Karenina - *Do You Remember?* (1935), as (archive footage) - *The Painted Veil* (1934), as Katrin Koerber Fane - *Queen Christina* (1934), as Christina - *Grand Hotel* (1932), as Grusinskaya - *As You Desire Me* (1932), as Zara, a.k.a. Maria - *Mata Hari* (1931), as Mata Hari - *Susan Lenox* (1931), as Helga, aka Susan Lenox - *Fröken, Ni liknar Greta Garbo!* (1931), as (archive footage) - *Inspiration* (1931), as Yvonne Valbret - *Anna Christie* (1930), as Anna Christie - *Romance* (1930), as Rita Cavallini - *Anna Christie* (1930), as Anna Christie - *The Kiss* (1929), as Irene - *With Greta Garbo on the Swedish American Line's Ship* (1929), Actor - *The Single Standard* (1929), as Arden Stuart - *A Man's Man* (1929), as Greta Garbo - *Wild Orchids* (1929), as Lillie Sterling - *A Woman of Affairs* (1928), as Diana Merrick - *The Mysterious Lady* (1928), as Tania Fedorova - *The Divine Woman* (1928), as Marianne - *Love* (1927), as Anna Karenina - *Flesh and the Devil* (1926), as Felicitas - *The Temptress* (1926), as Elena - *Vårt kronprinspar i Hollywood* (1926), Actor - *Torrent* (1926), as Leonora Moreno - *Joyless Street* (1925), as Greta Rumfort - *The Saga of Gösta Berling* (1924), as Elizabeth Dohna - *Peter the Tramp* (1922), as Greta - *A Scarlet Angel* (1922), as Extra - *Our Daily Bread* (1921), as Companion - *A Fortune Hunter* (1921), as Maid - *Mr. and Mrs. Stockholm Out Shopping* (1920), as Elder Sister/Mannequin ## Gallery - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-54db31bbe16b.jpg) Greta Garbo — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (work for hire), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Garbo_in_Inspiration.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Felix Bressart och Greta Garbo i filmen ”Ninotchka”, 1939.](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-32cb4202b282.jpg) Felix Bressart och Greta Garbo i filmen ”Ninotchka”, 1939. — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Felix-Bressart-and-Greta-Garbo-in-Ninotchka-352129764256.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photograph of the Swedish-American actor Greta Garbo visiting Stockholm, Sweden.](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-579dea0a9e8a.jpg) Photograph of the Swedish-American actor Greta Garbo visiting Stockholm, Sweden. — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Greta-Garbo-1961.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Greta Garbo i Florens.Rom, 2 september (AP). De två svenska filmskådespelarna Greta Garbo och Ingrid Bergman har äntligen träffats – och det var Ingrid som tog (1949)](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-56c48376fa5a.jpg) Greta Garbo i Florens.Rom, 2 september (AP). De två svenska filmskådespelarna Greta Garbo och Ingrid Bergman har äntligen träffats – och det var Ingrid som tog (1949) — Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Greta-Garbo-in-Italy-352043393274.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-d5c6f3ea61fb.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-f53661e9c434.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-9c467d8ebe14.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB - ![Original studio publicity photo of Greta Garbo for the American film Ninotchka (1939).](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-c824651cb83e.jpg) Original studio publicity photo of Greta Garbo for the American film Ninotchka (1939). — Clarence Bull - studio photographer (per source information), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Greta_Garbo_-_Ninotchka_1939.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Swedish-American film actress Greta Garbo in 1946. On April, 1946 in New York's Hotel Plaza, Garbo and Cecil Beaton made their first photo-session together. Pub](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-f804e7af1290.jpg) Swedish-American film actress Greta Garbo in 1946. On April, 1946 in New York's Hotel Plaza, Garbo and Cecil Beaton made their first photo-session together. Pub — Cecil Beaton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Greta_Garbo_1946_by_Cecil_Beaton.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-7db9de1c5db7.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-ebe9b3580f43.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB - ![Greta Garbo](https://film.one/media/person/1231306/gallery-423afb270c26.jpg) Greta Garbo — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 3 nominated - 1940: Best Actress (nominated), for *Ninotchka* - 1938: Best Actress (nominated), for *Camille* - 1930: Best Actress (nominated), for *Romance* ### Other awards — 3 won - Illis quorum 1985: Illis quorum (won) - Academy Honorary Award 1954: Academy Honorary Award (won) - Litteris et Artibus 1937: Litteris et Artibus (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/greta-garbo