Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, later known as Greta Garbo, was born on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Anna Lovisa (Johansdotter) and Karl Alfred Gustafsson. Her father's untimely death at the age of 14 left the family in a state of destitution, forcing Greta to abandon her studies and take up work at a department store.
It was at this store that she began to model for their newspaper advertisements, which caught the attention of Erik A. Petschler, a comedy director. He offered her a small part in his film Luffar-Petter (1922),marking the beginning of her film career.
Greta's early performances were met with moderate success, but it wasn't until she was pulled from the drama school by famed Swedish director Mauritz Stiller to star in The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) that her career truly took off. She was just 18 years old at the time.
In 1925, both Greta and Stiller were offered contracts with MGM, and she went on to star in a string of successful films, including The Joyless Street (1925),Torrent (1926),The Temptress (1926),Love (1927),A Woman of Affairs (1928),and Anna Christie (1930),which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
The 1930s saw Greta continue to give intense performances in films such as Romance (1930),Mata Hari (1931),Grand Hotel (1932),Anna Karenina (1935),and Camille (1936),for which she earned another Oscar nomination.
