2. Greta Garbo
Commonly regarded as one of the all time greatest movie stars, Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress who gained fame as the preeminent performer of the silent film era and beyond, before retiring to a life of solitude. Garbo became a star with silent films like Flesh and the Devil and The Mysterious Lady before making the switch to sound with 1930s Anna Christie, a film that was publicized with the now-famous tagline “Garbo Talks.” But by the 1930s, Garbo had become quite discriminating about which films she worked on, and after a film called Ninotchka in 1941, she retired from movies altogether. Garbo withdrew from the business almost entirely, and spent her later years living anonymously in New York City. She became something of a legend in the city, as well as the number one target of the paparazzi, who considered shots of her the holy grail of celebrity photography. But despite continued interest in her as a performer, she chose to live out her final years alone and secluded, only meeting occasionally with a small group of friends and acquaintances. During her career Garbo never signed autographs, gave interviews, or answered fan mail, and to this day she remains one of the most unusual figures in film history.