Greta Garbo.Forever Alone. (1)

 ‘I want to be alone’.(sola ) Hollywood legend Greta Garbo is famous for saying these words. The idea of a woman who preferred solitude rather than company fitted (encajaba ) perfectly with her image as a glamorous, beautiful and unattainable (inalcanzable) film star.  But in fact, she never said those words. What she actually said was ‘I want to be left alone’. That sentence means that she disliked the publicity and the attention that is part of the life of a movie star. So, unlike ( a diferencia de ) most film stars, Garbo was ‘left alone’.  She did not give interviews, or attend premieres of her films. She did not sign autographs, or reply to letters from fans.  She made her last film in 1941, then lived almost as a recluse for the next 49 years of her life. However,(sin embargo ) in spite of ( pese a ) her desire to be left alone, Greta Garbo is still one of the most famous movie stars of all time.

 Born in Poverty 

 Greta Lovisa Gustafsson was born in Stockholm in Sweden on September 18^th, 1905 into a poor family. She was the youngest of three children. She had one older brother, Sven, and an older sister, Alva. The family were Lutherans, the traditional religion in Sweden. Greta was very close to her father, an unskilled labourer (obrero no cualificado)  who was often unemployed. When Greta was 13, her father became seriously ill. Every week she used to take him to the charity clinic, and they had to wait for hours for treatment. Sadly, when Greta was 14 years old, her father died. He was only 48 years old. 

Greta had to leave school and get a job in order to earn money to help the family. Her first job was in a barber’s. Then, she got a job in a large department store ( grandes almacenes) in Stockholm, where she worked selling hats. 

In 1920, Greta was asked to appear as a model in some newspaper advertisements (anuncio) for the department store where she was working. She also got her first film role, in a promotional film for the store, called Mr and Mrs Stockholm Go Shopping. Greta began to think that modelling and acting might be a good way to earn some money. In 1922, she left her job in the department store to concentrate on acting. She met a film director, who offered her a part in a feature film called Peter the Tramp. In the same year, she began to study at drama school in Stockholm. Her career as an actress had begun.