BEVERLY HILLS, Calfornia - Oscar is celebrating the centenary birthday of one of the greatest legends of cinema, the late screen goddess Greta Garbo.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences kicks off the celebrations for the Swedish-born superstar`s 100th birthday on Thursday with a special tribute led by the few people left in Hollywood who knew her.
The event, to be hosted by Academy Award-nominated actress Lena Olin, will include film clips and will include appearances by actress Joan Leslie and authors Gore Vidal and Gavin Lambert.
Born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm on September 18, 1905, Garbo got her start in films in a publicity short for a department store.
After training with the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm, she appeared in Mauritz Stiller`s "Gosta Berlings Saga," the film that brought her to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio chief Louis B. Mayer. Mayer signed Garbo to the contract that brought her to Hollywood in 1925.
Garbo`s career at MGM included Oscar-nominated roles in "Anna Christie," "Romance," "Camille" and her only comedy, 1939`s "Ninotchka," as well as roles in "Mata Hari," and the classics "Grand Hotel" and "Anna Karenina."
But in 1941, at age 36, Garbo famously retired to a reclusive life spent in Manhattan, Switzerland and the Riviera after being credited with the immortal line: "I want to be alone." She died in New York in 1990.
04/08/2005 02:05 GMT