Biography
Maria Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. Born in Tula in the Russian Empire, she trained in singing in Warsaw and acting in Moscow, where she became a founding member of the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre and studied under Konstantin Stanislavsky.
She arrived in the United States in 1922 with the Moscow Art Theatre company and remained there. She performed on Broadway and in 1929 co-founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York City with Richard Boleslawski. From 1936 she appeared in Hollywood supporting roles.
Her film credits include Dodsworth (1936), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, Love Affair (1939), Waterloo Bridge (1940), The Wolf Man (1941) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943). She died in Los Angeles in 1949.
