She Still <i> Vants</i> To Be Alone

Happy Birthday, Greta Garbo: the legendary film star turns 84 Monday, as elusive as ever.

She left Hollywood at age 36, a star . She didn’t need the attention. She didn’t need to sell products or to worry about making the transition to older roles. She simply retired, having made some smart real estate investments in Beverly Hills. Mostly, she vanted her privacy.

The unprecedented departure spawned a mystique. Over the decades, her success as a true recluse intensified the mystery. Nearly 50 years after making her last film (director George Cukor’s “Two-Faced Woman,” 1941), she still attracts fans and photographers.

“Who else can you make that statement about?” asks Los Angeles County Museum of Art film department chief Ron Haver. “Her mystique is just as much as it ever was to people who know movies.” Because her films are on videotape, he added, the legend has endured.

Garbo continues to reside in an East Side Manhattan apartment. When King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Garbo’s native Sweden visited her in April, 1988, it was rumored the actress’ health was frail. As recently as two weeks ago, however, a N.Y.C. show-biz insider reported she was spotted taking her usual daily walk around the neighborhood.

In an issue of Life magazine earlier this year, Garbo--who never gives interviews--was quoted by close friend Raymond Daum.

She seemed to sum up her outlook: “I don’t want any kind of attention from anybody, except that I know that someone likes me, and that’s nice. Otherwise it’s sickening. It’s all so false.”