Ladies and Gentlemen:

My wife and I feel singularly privileged to have been invited to this Memorial Ceremony in honor of Greta Garbo.

As the American grandson of Swedes who settled in America in the early 1890s, I have a special admiration for the film career of the great Swedish actress, Greta Garbo.

Born and raised in Stockholm, Greta Garbo made her first American film in 1926, "The Torrent," followed in 1927 by "Flesh and the Devil" costarring John Gilbert, and immediately became one of Hollywood's brightest stars. Greta Garbo was the first Swedish actress to become a Hollywood super-star.

During her career, she made 27 films, and in every film her performance was somehow magic. Her last film was "Two-Faced Woman", which had the misfortune of being released in late December 1941, just three weeks after the Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor. The American public's attention was firmly fixed on America's entry into World War II, and Garbo's last film failed to attract a large audience.

Film critics have said that at the core of Garbo's image was ambiguity: each viewer could see her differently. There was something in her appearance on screen that was magical, that fired the moviegoer's imagination. As biographer Barry Paris said in his book, Garbo , "Her face was as pure as Michelangelo's Mary of the Pieta, yet glowing with passion."

It is hard for people in the 1990s to imagine the impact that Greta Garbo had on her audiences, not just because of her superb acting, but also because she avoided the kind of over-publicity -- over-exposure -- that is common for today's stars. Again, it is Barry Paris who points out that stars of her magnitude don't exist today because no mystery remains. We know too much about them.

In Greta Garbo's case, instead, we have seen that the legend of Greta Garbo is very much alive. Even among younger people who may not have seen her films, Greta Garbo is a cultural icon.

The essence of Garbo's image is mystery, and yet, what we all know about Greta Garbo is that for millions of moviegoers the world over, she will always remain a very beautiful, a very enigmatic, and a very special person.

From the bottoms of our hearts, my wife and I wish for Greta Garbo eternal peace in her final resting-place, here in the land of her birth, Sweden.

Thank you.

United States Embassy, Dag Hammarskjölds Väg 31, SE-115 89 Stockholm