Greta Garbo Biography

Fast Facts

• After her father died when she was 14, she left school to help care for her family
• Brought to Hollywood by director Mauritz Stiller
• Poster for her first talkie, Anna Christie, read "Garbo Talks!", which became a catchphrase widely associated with her
• Retired from acting in 1941 at the age of 36; famously said "I want to be let alone
• " Lived in the same apartment building with Valentina Schlee, wife of Garbo's long-time lover George Schlee, for more than 30 years; the women never spoke to each other
• Inspired the 1984 film Garbo Talks, about a terminally ill woman whose last wish is to meet Greta Garbo
• Long rumored to have had an affair with Mercedes de Acosta, letters between the two released after Garbo's death lacked evidence to prove the relationship was anything more than friendly