Greta Garbo-Personal Life

 

 

Garbo avoided the social functions in Hollywood in her early career.  She preferred to spend her time alone or with a few friends.  She seldom signed autographs.  She answered no fan mail.  She only gave few interviews.  Her refusal to give interviews gave rise to a press reporter expression "pulling a Garbo" or "going Garbo", referring to any such actions. 

 

In her “Photoplay” interview she said: “I have always been moody. When I was just a little child, as early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don't like many people. I used to crawl into a corner and sit and think, think things over.”

 

She is closely associated with a line from “Grand Hotel”.  It was voted by the American Film Institute in 2005 as he 30th most memorable movie quote of all time, "I want to be alone,  I just want to be alone"  It was a theme that echoed in several of her other roles.  For example, in “Love” a title card reads, "I like to be alone"  In “The Single Standard”, her character says, "I am walking alone because I want to be alone” In “Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)”, she says to a suitor, "This time I rise... and fall... alone". In “Inspiration”, she tells a fickle lover, "I just want to be alone for a little while".  In “Mata Hari”, she says to her new amour, "I never look ahead. By next spring I shall probably be... quite alone".  In “Ninotchka”, emissaries from Russia ask her, "Do you want to be alone, comrade"? "No", she bluntly answers. By the early 1930s, the phrase had become indelibly linked with Garbo's persona if not her actual life.

 

In a surprise interview granted to the press on board the liner Kungsholm in October 1938, Garbo was asked if she had enjoyed her vacation with conductor Leopold Stokowski. Sighing huskily, Garbo replied, "You cannot have a vacation without peace and you cannot have peace unless left alone."

 

Garbo never married, had no children, and lived alone.

 

Garbo most famous romance was with her frequent co-star, John Gilbert, with whom she lived in 1926 and 1927. MGM capitalized on Garbo relationship with Gilbert after their huge hit, “Flesh and the Devil”.  Costarring them again in two more hits, “Love” and “A Woman of Affairs” .  Gilbert allegedly proposed to her numerous times. Legend has it that when a double marriage was arranged in 1926 (with Eleanor Boardman and King Vidor).  Garbo failed to appear at the ceremony.  Garbo's recent biographers, however, have questioned the of this story.  Cecil Beaton wrote in his memoirs about his affair with Garbo between 1946 and 1948.  In his diary, Erich Maria Remarque discusses a liaison with her in 1941.

 

In 1937, she met conductor Leopold Stokowski with whom she had a highly publicized friendship or romance while travelling throughout Europe in 1938.  It was thought that she had a tryst with Rouben Mamoulian and an affair with George Brent.  In 1940, Garbo met the Russian-born millionaire George Schlee, who was married to fashion designer Valentina. Schlee, who split his time between the two, became Garbo's close companion and advisor until his death in 1964.

 

Biographers and others speculate that she was bisexual, or lesbian.  They thought Garbo and screen actress Lilyan Tashman  had an affair in 1929.  Louise Brooks stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year.  In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and socialite Mercedes de Acosta and the pair allegedly began a sporadic and volatile romance. They remained friends—with ups and downs—for almost thirty years.  When de Acosta published her controversial 1960 memoir, “Here Lies the Heart”, they became permanently estranged.  In 2005, Swedish actress Mimi Pollak, a close friend in drama school, released the letters Garbo had written her during their sixty year correspondence. Several letters suggest she may have been in love with Pollak for many years.  After learning of Pollak's pregnancy in 1930, for example, Garbo Leon Panetta wrote, "We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together."