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Maria Ouspenskaya

 
Actor: Maria Ouspenskaya
  • Born: Jul 29, 1876 in Tula, Russia
  • Died: Dec 03, 1949 in Los Angeles, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '30s-'40s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Romance
  • Career Highlights: Love Affair, The Wolf Man, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
  • First Major Screen Credit: Love Affair (1939)

Biography

One of the most dynamic, and tiniest, of character actresses, Russian-born Maria Ouspenskaya had originally dreamed of an operatic career. She studied in both Warsaw and Moscow until money ran out, then switched gears and decided to concentrate on acting. Though she was past 30 when she entered Adasheff's School of Drama, Mme. Ouspenskaya was the school's most energetic and ambitious pupil; after graduation, she toured Russia in stock company, no mean feat in those pre-airplane days, then starred with the Moscow Art Theatre of Konstantin Stanislavsky. The Revolution and the famine that followed only strengthened her reserve to make something of herself. Remaining as a performing and instructor with the Moscow Art Theatre after the Communist takeover, the actress toured Europe and America, settling in the latter country for good in 1924. A fellow Stansilavsky pupil, Richard Boleslawsky, found work for Ouspenskaya on the faculty of the American Laboratory Theatre; She branched out to form her own acting school in 1929. Maria's role as the wise old mother of a titled fortune hunter in the stage play Dodsworth led to her recreation of the role in Sam Goldwyn's 1936 film version. Thereafter, if a wizened matriarch of any nationality was required for a movie - French, Polish, East Indian - Mme. Oupenskaya was among the first to be called upon. Despite her steady work in A-pictures, it was for a medium-budget horror film that she is best remembered today. In The Wolf Man (1941), it is Ouspenskaya as mournful gypsy woman Maleva who breaks the news that poor Lon Chaney Jr. has been bitten by a werewolf; the actress' chilling recital of the famed Wolf Man curse ("Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night") is enough to give adult viewers nightmares. She repeated the role in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), to which she brought the same degree of artistry that she invested in such prestigious assignments as King's Row (1942). While her earlier deprivations in Russia had made her nearly impervious to illness and infirmity, Maria Ouspenskaya was unable to survive one of mankind's oldest scourges. In 1949, she fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in bed; the resultant fire led to her death from burns and a stroke at age 73. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Maria Ouspenskaya

in Love Affair (1939)
Born July 29, 1876(1876-07-29)
Tula, Russia
Died December 3, 1949 (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Maria Ouspenskaya (Russian: Мария Успенская; July 29, 1876 – December 3, 1949) was a Russian actress who achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.

Contents

Early life

Ouspenskaya was born in Tula, Russia to a lawyer father. She studied singing in Warsaw and acting in Moscow and performed extensively in Russian theater.

Career

A member of the Moscow Art Theatre, Ouspenskaya was directed by Constantin Stanislavski, and for the remainder of her life advocated and taught his 'system', which in America became 'method acting'. The Moscow Art Theatre travelled widely throughout Europe and when it arrived in New York in 1922 she decided to stay there. She performed regularly on Broadway over the next decade, and in 1929 she founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York. One of Ouspenskaya's students at the school during this period was Anne Baxter, then an unknown teenager.

Although she had appeared in a few Russian silent films many years earlier, Ouspenskaya stayed away from Hollywood until her school's financial problems forced her to look for ways to repair her finances. Her first Hollywood role in Dodsworth (1936) brought her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a second nomination in 1939 for her role in Love Affair. She portrayed Maleva, an old Gypsy fortuneteller in the horror films The Wolf Man (1941) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). Her other successes included The Rains Came (1939), Waterloo Bridge (1940), The Mortal Storm (1940), and Kings Row (1942).

Death

Ouspenskaya died from a stroke several days after receiving severe burns in a house fire, which she allegedly caused by falling asleep while smoking a cigarette. She was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.[1]

References

  1. ^ Mank, Gregory W. (McFarland & Co.). Women in Horror Films, 1940s. 1999. pp. 95. 

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