Alla Nazimova

Alla Nazimova

Born: June 3, 1879
Died: July 13, 1945
in Yalta, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire [now Crimea, Ukraine]
From Wikipedia

Alla Nazimova (Russian and Ukrainian: Алла Назимова; 3 June [O.S. 22 May] 1879 – 13 July 1945) was an American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter, and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff. She emigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire. In 1927, Nazimova became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

She was signed up by the American producer Henry Miller and made her Broadway debut in New York City, in 1906 to critical and popular success. She quickly became extremely popular (a theatre was named after her) and remained a major Broadway star for years, often acting in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. Dorothy Parker described her as the finest Hedda Gabler she had ever seen.

Due to her notoriety in a 35-minute 1915 play entitled War Brides, Nazimova made her silent film debut in 1916 in the filmed version of the play, which was produced by Lewis J. Selznick. A young actor with a bit part in the movie was Richard Barthelmess whose mother taught Nazimova English. In 1917, she negotiated a contract with Metro Pictures, a precursor to MGM, that included a weekly salary of $13,000. She moved from New York to Hollywood, where she made a number of highly successful films for Metro that earned her considerable money. She was influential in the film industry in the silent era and continued to play character roles until the end of her life.

Between the years of 1917 and 1922 Nazimova wielded considerable influence and power in Hollywood. By all accounts she was extremely generous to young actresses in whom she saw talent and became involved with at least some of them romantically.

By 1925 Nazimova could no longer afford to invest in more films; and financial backers withdrew their support. Left with few options, she gave up on the film industry, returning to perform on Broadway, notably starring as Natalya Petrovna in Rouben Mamoulian's 1930 New York production of Turgenev's A Month in the Country and an acclaimed performance as Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts. In the early 1940s, she appeared in a few more films, playing Robert Taylor's mother in Escape (1940) and Tyrone Power's mother in Blood and Sand (1941). This late return to motion pictures fortunately preserves Nazimova and her art on sound film.

She died of a coronary thrombosis, age 66, in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. Her ashes were interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Her contributions to the film industry have been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Movies for Alla Nazimova...

Behind Natacha Rambova's Shadow
Title: Behind Natacha Rambova's Shadow
Character: Various Roles (archive footage)
Released: July 6, 2019
Type: Movie
The adventurous life of Natacha Rambova (1897-1966), an American artist, born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy, who reincarnated herself countless times: false Russian dancer, silent film actress, scenographer and costume designer, writer, spiritist, Egyptologist, indefatigable traveler, mysterious and curious; an amazing 20th century woman who created the myth of Rudolph Valentino.
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The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Title: The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: May 24, 1961
Type: Movie
A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.
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Since You Went Away
Title: Since You Went Away
Character: Zofia Koslowska
Released: June 30, 1944
Type: Movie
While husband Tim is away during World War II, Anne Hilton copes with problems on the homefront. Taking in a lodger, Colonel Smollett, to help make ends meet and dealing with shortages and rationing are minor inconveniences compared to the love affair daughter Jane and the Colonel's grandson conduct.
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In Our Time
Title: In Our Time
Character: Zofia Orwid (as Nazimova)
Released: February 19, 1944
Type: Movie
It is early 1939 in Poland when Mrs. Bromley and Jennifer come to buy antiques for her business in London. Jennifer meets Count Stephen and they wine, dine and see the sights though out the city. He wishes to marry, but his family is against plain Jennifer. When she tries to leave, he catches her at the train station and they are married. To be self sufficient, they modernize the family farm with tractors and increase production, but then Germany starts the war.
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The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Title: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Character: Doña Maria - The Marquesa
Released: February 11, 1944
Type: Movie
A rope bridge over a gorge in the Peruvian Andes snaps, sending five people plunging to their deaths. A priest sets out to find out more about the life of each of the victims.
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Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Title: Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: January 1, 1942
Type: Movie
The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.
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Blood and Sand
Title: Blood and Sand
Character: Senora Augustias
Released: May 30, 1941
Type: Movie
Bullfighter Juan Gallardo falls for socialite Dona Sol, turning from the faithful Carmen who nevertheless stands by her man as he continues to face real danger in the bullring.
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Escape
Title: Escape
Character: Emmy Ritter
Released: November 1, 1940
Type: Movie
An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of an American-born widowed countess he seeks to engineer her escape.
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A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Title: A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Character: Self
Released: October 24, 1940
Type: Movie
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
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My Son
Title: My Son
Character: Ana Silva
Released: April 19, 1925
Type: Movie
A mother and her son's lives are upended by the arrival of a wealthy flapper to their small New England fishing village.
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The Redeeming Sin
Title: The Redeeming Sin
Character: Joan
Released: January 25, 1925
Type: Movie
Lupin is the lover of Joan of the Apaches. She is attracted by Paul de Gafilet, nobleman and sculptor. She visits him in his studio and resolves to abandon her underworld career for his sake. Lupin vows revenge but is frustrated by Joan. The latter's affection for Paul turns to rage when she sees him embracing another woman. Joan joins with her confederates to steal some jewels from a statue of the Madonna in a church. She learns that the woman she is jealous of is Paul's sister, attempts to halt the robbery but fails. Paul is injured by the thieves and Joan held captive.
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Madonna of the Streets
Title: Madonna of the Streets
Character: Mary Carlson / Mary Ainsleigh
Released: October 19, 1924
Type: Movie
Rev. John Morton, who is determined to follow as closely as possible the teachings of Jesus, inherits a considerable fortune when his uncle dies. Shortly thereafter he succumbs to the wiles of Mary Carlson and marries her. To Mary's dismay, John uses his money for charitable work. When John learns that not only has Mary been unfaithful to him but she was also his uncle's mistress and became Mrs. Morton in order to share the inheritance she believed to be rightfully hers, he sends her away with his secretary.
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Salomé
Title: Salomé
Character: Salomé
Released: December 31, 1922
Type: Movie
Based on Oscar Wilde's play, the films tells the story of how Salomé agrees to dance for King Herod in return for the head of John the Baptist.
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A Doll's House
Title: A Doll's House
Character: Nora Helmer
Released: February 12, 1922
Type: Movie
Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed.
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Camille
Title: Camille
Character: Marguerite Gautier
Released: September 26, 1921
Type: Movie
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
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Billions
Title: Billions
Character: Princess Triloff
Released: December 6, 1920
Type: Movie
Princess Triloff, an emigrée from Czarist Russia, escapes to America where she becomes a patron of the arts. She falls in love with the verses of impoverished poet Owen Carey and becomes his anonymous benefactor. When Owen inherits a fortune from his rich Uncle Krakerfeller, he assumes his uncle's identity and confers his own upon an impoverished friend, Frank Manners. At a resort, Owen meets the princess and falls in love with her, but is chagrined to discover that she is enamored with Manners. The princess finally discovers Owen's real identity and the two fall in love.
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Madame Peacock
Title: Madame Peacock
Character: Jane Goring / Gloria Cromwell
Released: October 1, 1920
Type: Movie
Jane Goring, a ruthlessly ambitious actress, forsakes her life as a wife and mother for the stage. Returning home from a performance one night, Jane is disgusted to find her husband Robert McNaughton victimized by a tubercular cough and so banishes him and her young daughter to a sanitarium in Colorado. Years pass, finding Jane still estranged from her family. On the opening night of her new play, Jane finds herself upstaged and outperformed by Gloria Cromwell, a rising young actress, who, unknown to Jane, is her abandoned daughter. Returning home, Jane is haunted by visions of her husband and child and begins to sob. Looking up from her pillow, she is startled to see her husband with Gloria.
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The Heart of a Child
Title: The Heart of a Child
Character: Sally Snape (as Nazimova)
Released: April 11, 1920
Type: Movie
A poverty-stricken Cockney girl rises through incredible adventures to become the wife of a nobleman.
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Stronger Than Death
Title: Stronger Than Death
Character: Sigrid Fersen
Released: January 11, 1920
Type: Movie
Sigrid, A French dancer, diagnosed with a weak heart, is ordered by her doctor never to dance again. But when her dancing skills are needed by her lover's father to help quell a native uprising on the East Indian frontier, she determines to dance whatever the cost.
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The Brat
Title: The Brat
Character: The Brat
Released: September 1, 1919
Type: Movie
An unkempt chorus girl is arrested on a minor charge. In court, she is spotted by a novelist who is looking for someone of her type on whom to model a character in a book he is writing. He takes her into his home where she is looked down upon by his snobbish family. But the girl brings something to the family unlike anything they have known before.
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The Red Lantern
Title: The Red Lantern
Character: Mahlee & Blanche Sackville
Released: May 4, 1919
Type: Movie
Mahlee and Blanche Sackville are half-sisters, Blanche the daughter of an Englishman and his wife, Mahlee of the Englishman and his Chinese mistress. Mahlee rejects her people and attempts to find a life for herself among the Europeans. But she finds the color line impossible to pass and returns to lead her Chinese people in rebellion.
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Out of the Fog
Title: Out of the Fog
Character: Faith / Eve
Released: February 9, 1919
Type: Movie
Faith’s life is shattered when her lover dies. Her brother Job locks her away in a lighthouse, but she jumps from the tower rather than be imprisoned. Faith's daughter, however, lives on. The girl Eve grows into her teens, sheltered from the world by her puritanical uncle. But Eve nevertheless manages to encounter a young man, Phillip Blake. When Phillip returns for Eve, he has to deal with her crusty, malevolent guardian….
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Eye for Eye
Title: Eye for Eye
Character: Hassouna
Released: December 22, 1918
Type: Movie
The daughter of an Arab sheik falls in love with a French naval officer, thus breaking the strict rule of social law of her people, as well as her religion.
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A Woman of France
Title: A Woman of France
Character: Louise
Released: October 1, 1918
Type: Movie
Somewhere in France, German troops occupy the chateau of Marquis X. The commanding officer see the aged Marquis attempt to signal his daughter Louise, and seizing a paper writes an order demanding her presence. On the paper is a message in code from the Marquis to ring the bell as a signal to the French troops. Louise kills one of the German officers and rings the bell, though she knows it will mean death for her father and herself. The picture fades into a Liberty Bell ringing out "Buy, buy, buy, Bonds."
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Toys of Fate
Title: Toys of Fate
Character: Zorah / Hagah
Released: May 12, 1918
Type: Movie
A gypsy girl whose mother committed suicide after being seduced and abandoned by a rich man finds herself twenty years later being wooed by the same man.
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Revelation
Title: Revelation
Character: Joline
Released: February 17, 1918
Type: Movie
Joline, a cabaret singer in Paris, models for her lover, painter Paul Granville. Paul becomes famous for his paintings of Joline in the guise of famous women like Cleopatra and Salome. But when he paints Joline as the Madonna, a miracle occurs which transforms her life and ultimately saves his.
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War Brides
Title: War Brides
Character: Joan
Released: January 2, 1916
Type: Movie
Joan is loved by a young man of the village and they are married. In a few weeks the husband, a soldier, is sent to the war-front along with his three brothers. Word is received that her husband has been killed in battle and Joan's first impulse is suicide by she is pregnant and her prospective motherhood makes her realize her new responsibility. The military authorities start a movement to get the young women of the country to marry departing soldiers, so that the empire may have another generation of fighting men. Word is received that the King is to pass through their village and Joan organizes the women in a general protest against the war. She leads them all, dressed in black, in a long procession to meet the Monarch. The soldiers threaten to shoot her unless she turns the women back, buy Joan comes face-to-face with the ruler and kills herself, as her message from the women that they refuse to make another generation victims of a ruthless militarism.