Alla Nazimova(1879-1945)
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
The grand, highly flamboyant Russian star Alla Nazimova of Hollywood
silent films lived an equally grand, flamboyant life off-camera, though
her legendary status has not held up as firmly as that of a Rudolph Valentino today.
Alla Nazimova was born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon in 1879, in Yalta, Crimea, in the Russian Empire, to Jewish parents, Sonya Horowitz and Yakov Leventon. She was the
third child in an abusive, contentious household. Most of her sad
childhood was spent in foster homes or in the care of other relatives
and she showed a strong penchant for outrageous behavior to cope.
Nazimova also showed a great aptitude for music at a young age and
began violin lessons at age seven. She changed her name to Alla
Nazimova when she began appearing on stage--her father insisted on it, as "performing" was not considered
respectable at the time.
She began acting lessons at age 17 and joined Konstantin Stanislavski's
company of actors as a pupil of his "method style" at the Moscow Art
Theatre. During that time she supported herself by being kept by rich,
older men. A failed love affair led to her only marriage, to an acting
student named Sergei Golovin, but they separated quickly. She grew discontented
with Stanislavsky and later performed in repertory. She met the
legendary Pavel Orlenev, a close friend of Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky, and entered
into both a personal and professional relationship with him. They
toured internationally throughout Europe with great success and came to
New York in 1905, where Nazimova was saluted on Broadway for her
definitive interpretations of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's
House." Orlenev returned to Russia but Nazimova stayed.
She made her screen debut with War Brides (1916), which was initially a 35-minute
play. By 1918 she was a box-office star for Metro Pictures and completed 11 films
for the studio over a three-year period. A torrid, stylish and rather
outré tragedienne who played exotic, liberal women confronted by great
personal anguish, she earned personal successes as a reformed
prostitute in Revelation (1918), a suicide in Toys of Fate (1918) and dual roles as
half-sisters during the Boxer Rebellion in The Red Lantern (1919), not to mention the
title role of Camille (1921) with Rudolph Valentino. At the same time she maintained a
strong Broadway theatrical career.
In accordance with her rise in the film industry, she began producing
her own efforts, which were bold and experimental--and monumental
failures, although they are hailed as great artistic efforts today. Her
Salomé (1922) was quite scandalous and deemed a failure at the time. The
monetary losses she suffered as producer were astronomical. The Hays
Code, which led to severe censorship in pictures, also led to her
downfall, as did her outmoded acting style. She was forced to
abandon films for the theater, scoring exceptionally well in Anton Chekhov's
"The Cherry Orchard." She did return to films briefly in the 1940s in a variety of
supporting roles, but she made these solely for the money.
Nazimova's private life has long been the subject of industry gossip.
As a Hollywood cover to her well-known bisexual lifestyle, she
coexisted in a "marriage" with gay actor Charles Bryant for well over a
decade. Her "Garden of Allah" home was the centerpiece for many
glamorous private parties. She died in 1945.
silent films lived an equally grand, flamboyant life off-camera, though
her legendary status has not held up as firmly as that of a Rudolph Valentino today.
Alla Nazimova was born Miriam Edez Adelaida Leventon in 1879, in Yalta, Crimea, in the Russian Empire, to Jewish parents, Sonya Horowitz and Yakov Leventon. She was the
third child in an abusive, contentious household. Most of her sad
childhood was spent in foster homes or in the care of other relatives
and she showed a strong penchant for outrageous behavior to cope.
Nazimova also showed a great aptitude for music at a young age and
began violin lessons at age seven. She changed her name to Alla
Nazimova when she began appearing on stage--her father insisted on it, as "performing" was not considered
respectable at the time.
She began acting lessons at age 17 and joined Konstantin Stanislavski's
company of actors as a pupil of his "method style" at the Moscow Art
Theatre. During that time she supported herself by being kept by rich,
older men. A failed love affair led to her only marriage, to an acting
student named Sergei Golovin, but they separated quickly. She grew discontented
with Stanislavsky and later performed in repertory. She met the
legendary Pavel Orlenev, a close friend of Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky, and entered
into both a personal and professional relationship with him. They
toured internationally throughout Europe with great success and came to
New York in 1905, where Nazimova was saluted on Broadway for her
definitive interpretations of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's
House." Orlenev returned to Russia but Nazimova stayed.
She made her screen debut with War Brides (1916), which was initially a 35-minute
play. By 1918 she was a box-office star for Metro Pictures and completed 11 films
for the studio over a three-year period. A torrid, stylish and rather
outré tragedienne who played exotic, liberal women confronted by great
personal anguish, she earned personal successes as a reformed
prostitute in Revelation (1918), a suicide in Toys of Fate (1918) and dual roles as
half-sisters during the Boxer Rebellion in The Red Lantern (1919), not to mention the
title role of Camille (1921) with Rudolph Valentino. At the same time she maintained a
strong Broadway theatrical career.
In accordance with her rise in the film industry, she began producing
her own efforts, which were bold and experimental--and monumental
failures, although they are hailed as great artistic efforts today. Her
Salomé (1922) was quite scandalous and deemed a failure at the time. The
monetary losses she suffered as producer were astronomical. The Hays
Code, which led to severe censorship in pictures, also led to her
downfall, as did her outmoded acting style. She was forced to
abandon films for the theater, scoring exceptionally well in Anton Chekhov's
"The Cherry Orchard." She did return to films briefly in the 1940s in a variety of
supporting roles, but she made these solely for the money.
Nazimova's private life has long been the subject of industry gossip.
As a Hollywood cover to her well-known bisexual lifestyle, she
coexisted in a "marriage" with gay actor Charles Bryant for well over a
decade. Her "Garden of Allah" home was the centerpiece for many
glamorous private parties. She died in 1945.