Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo's uniquely photogenic beauty belies her great talent as an actress, as her performances in "Queen Christina" and "Camille" prove. A hint of a Garbo smile, touch, or glance conveyed volumes. She was languid, distant, and melancholy, yet in her love scenes she conveyed a passion and hunger that startled audiences and overturned American notions of eroticism and sexuality.

Part of her fascination, too, is the mystery of her private lives and loves: "I want to be alone," she insisted, but she remains the world's divine woman. "The Movie Icon" series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, Taschen shows you. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities in the history of cinema.