The Swedish-born American film star Greta Garbo (1905-1990) became one of Hollywood's legendary personalities.

Born Greta Louisa Gustafsson on September 18, 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, Greta Garbo grew up in respectable poverty--inhibited, self-conscious, and oddly mature. She was one of three children who became a legendary actress and one of the most fascinating women of all time. Garbo was a woman of remarkable beauty, intelligence, and independent spirit. Despite her beauty, Garbo was somewhat reclusive and photophobic. She once told a gossip columnist in France, "I feel like a criminal who is hunted...when photographers come, they draw crowds. I am frightened beyond control. When so many people stare, I feel almost ashamed."

She was a stagestruck girl of 14 when her job as a clerk in a department store led to photographic modeling for her employer's catalog. This in turn brought parts in two short advertising films and, at 16, a...