Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990 TAG: 9004200125
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Greta Garbo, who died this week at 84, will remain a true screen legend.
Most of us knew her better for her determination not to make movies than for the movies she made. But anyone who has seen "Camille" or "Ninotchka" - her most famous and most available movies - can't possibly doubt Garbo's special relationship with the camera. Few performers are blessed with the kind of screen magnetism Garbo generated. Marlon Brando - another semi-recluse - perhaps. In today's batch of stars, Debra Winger seemed for awhile to have that kind of ability to electrify a screen but her power has faded with some less-memorable movies.
Garbo's stardom was not a fluke. She made more than 20 movies, at the same time enjoying an easy transition from silent films to sound. In 1954, 12 years after her retirement, she was awarded a special Oscar for her achievements.
By all accounts, Garbo was an introspective and private person even as a child. And even when she found herself awash in the glow of fame, she held onto that privacy. She avoided the clamoring press and sought solitude. Finally in 1942 after a disastrous movie titled "Two-Faced Woman," Garbo quit.
She never made another movie. Like most major stars, she could easily have weathered a setback. Laurence Olivier appeared in bad movies. Orson Welles and Brando and Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, like practically everyone else in the film business, wound up in a dog or two. But Garbo did not hunger to be on screen. That's why she became a mystery woman. That's what created her mystique. Film, and the kind of fame, glamour and fortune that it affords, has held the imagination of generations of movie-goers. We can't understand why someone who had it all would so resolutely turn her back on something so elusive and captivating to the rest of us.
Celebrities handle their fame in different ways. Each year at the Virginia Festival of American Film in Charlottesville, celebrity citizens Sam Shepherd and Jessica Lange make themselves conspicuous by their absence. On the other hand, Sissy Spacek gives the festival support through her visibility. She eats in local restaurants, shops in local stores and achieves another kind of privacy by becoming a real part of her community. By ignoring her own status as a celebrity, Spacek becomes the girl next door.
Other stars seek the same privacy Garbo achieved but few have been willing to make the same sacrifice. Sylvester Stallone surrounds himself with bodyguards and then demands $16 million to appear in a turkey, capitalizing on the very fame that he flees. Sean Penn and Frank Sinatra resort to silly schoolyard pugnaciousness, punching out the photographers who increase their fame and bankability.
But Garbo may have single-handedly created the paparazzi. She managed to elude photographers and reporters without throwing fists or tantrums.
Early on, she realized that fame can be a demanding task-master and she turned her back on it with dignity, integrity and an unwavering commitment to the kind of life she valued most.
When she said she wanted to be alone, she meant it. And through such conviction, she became a legend to be admired.
by CNB