Maria Ouspenskaya

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Maria Ouspenskaya ( Russian Мария Алексеевна Успенская / Marija Alexejewna Uspenskaja ; born July 17 . Jul / 29. July  1876 greg. In Tula , Russian Empire ; †  3. December 1949 in Los Angeles , United States ) was a Russian-American Stage and film actress as well as renowned acting teacher. She was nominated twice for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

life and work

Maria Ouspenskaya first wanted to become an opera singer and studied classical singing at the Warsaw Conservatory, but later enrolled at the renowned Adashjew Academy for Drama in Moscow. First she traveled through the Russian provinces with traveling theaters until she accepted an engagement at the Chekhov Art Theater in Moscow . There she worked on her art of representation under the guidance of Konstantin Sergejewitsch Stanislawski . Between 1915 and 1922, the actress took part in a number of Russian silent films before she did not return in 1922 after a guest performance by the "Art Theater " in the USA.

As early as 1924, Richard Boleslawski , a fellow student and actor from Moscow times, brought Ouspenskaya to the American Laboratory Theater in New York, which he had recently founded - called "The Lab" for short. Until 1929, Ouspenskaya taught young mimes in the "method" adopted by Stanislavski alongside her theater career. In 1932 Maria Ouspenskaya founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York, which still exists today . To help this ambitious project out of a severe financial crisis, she accepted her first role in Hollywood in 1936. She played under the direction of William Wyler in time of love, time of departure an old Austrian countess, who prohibited the marriage of her son with a selfish American. The film is based on the play of the same name by Sinclair Lewis , in which Maria Ouspenskaya had already played on stage. For her portrayal she received a nomination for the Oscar for best supporting actress at the Academy Awards in 1937 . Three years later she was nominated again in this category for her appearance in Restless Love at the 1940 Academy Awards. Her best-known appearances include Maria Walewska alongside Greta Garbo and Charles Boyer and her first husband at Vivien Leigh's side . The actress died in 1949, at the age of 73, as a result of a house fire.

One of Maria Ouspenskaya's last students at the New York School of Dramatic Art was Anne Bancroft . In Mel Brooks Dracula - Dead but happy , Bancroft plays a prophetic gypsy named "Ouspenskaya", a tribute to comparable roles by Maria Ouspenskaya in the horror films The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man .

Filmography

literature

Web links

Commons : Maria Ouspenskaya  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Ouspenskaya, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uspenskaja, Marija Alexejewna; Успенская, Мария Алексеевна (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American stage and film actress and drama teacher of Russian descent
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Tula , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 3, 1949
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States