Mysterious and aloof, she appealed to both men and women, and she exerted a major influence on women's fashions, hair styles and makeup. On screen and off, she was a remote figure of loveliness.

Garbo's career spanned only 19 years. In 1941, at the age of 36, she made the last of her 27 movies, a slight comedy called ''Two Faced Woman.'' She went into what was to be temporary retirement, but she never returned to the screen.

Greta Garbo, designated in 1954 as the most beautiful woman to have ever lived, never married nor did she have children.