Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo was the biggest star at MGM Studios in the late 1920s and 1930s, when the advent of sound in film brought U.S. movie attendance to an all-time high. After early successes in Sweden and Germany, Garbo signed a contract with an MGM talent scout. All but forgotten by the studio after she arrived in New York City, she planned to return to Europe. However, when MGM executives saw this portrait and others, they finally brought her to Hollywood, as the photographer Arnold Genthe later recalled.

Throughout Garbo’s career, directors highlighted her enigmatic countenance by using dramatic close-ups. Usually cast in dramas, such as Anna Karenina (1935) or Camille (1936), her repertoire also encompassed comedies like Ninotchka (1939). Garbo temporarily retired from acting after her twentyeighth film, Two-Faced Woman (1941), and ultimately withdrew from public life.