An aging Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) taken in 1953

Good things never last. Same with beautiful women. In fact, more so with them. Here is a colorized photo of Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) taken by George Hoyningen-Huene in 1953 when she was already 48 years old. This is one of the rare photos of a retired and reclusive Greta Garbo where she posed for a photographer when she never trusted them. She appeared to have aged gracefully but the ravages of time remained obvious.

One would have expected Greta to live the rest of her life in seclusion in her hometown of Sweden, but she returned to the U.S. and In 1951, Greta obtained her American Citizenship and bought a 7-room apartment in upscale New York. Despite surviving her bout with breast cancer in 1984, she suffered a condition that let her to undergo dialysis for six hours three times a week at the Rogozin Institute in New York Hospital. Greta eventually succumbed to pneumonia and renal failure. in a hospital in 1990. Her biographer claims that towards the end, she also suffered from gastrointestinal and periodontal ailments. Her remains were cremated in Manhattan, and her ashes were interred in 1999 at Skogskyrkogården Cemetery just south of her native city Stockholm in Sweden. Garbo had invested wisely, primarily in stocks and bonds, and left her entire estate, worth over $32M ($61M in today's value) to her niece, Gray Reisfield.