Maria Ouspenskaya

Biography

Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher who achieved success as both a stage actress in Russia and an older woman in Hollywood films. She studied singing and acting in Warsaw and Moscow before performing regularly on Broadway in the 1920s, where she taught Lee Strasberg among others. In 1929, Ouspenskaya co-founded the School of Dramatic Art with Richard Boleslawski.