Anna Sten
Encyclopedia
Anna Sten was a Ukrainian
-born Russian
silent film actress and later a Hollywood film star. She began her career in stage plays and films in Russia
before travelling to Germany
, where she starred in several films. Her film performances were noticed by film producer Samuel Goldwyn
, who brought her to the United States
with the aim of creating a new screen personality to rival the popularity of Greta Garbo
. After a few unsuccessful films, Goldwyn released her from her contract. She continued to act occasionally until her final film appearance in 1962.
ballet master who died when she was 12. Her mother was Swedish. Sten worked as a waitress until she was discovered at the age of 15 while acting in an amateur play in Kiev
. Her discoverer was the influential Russian stage director and instructor Konstantin Stanislavsky, who arranged an audition for her at the Moscow Film Academy.
. She traveled to Germany to appear in films co-produced by German and Russian studios, international productions common in the years prior to World War II.
Making a smooth transition to talking pictures, Sten appeared in such German films as Trapeze (1931) and The Brothers Karamazov
(1931) until she came to the attention of American movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn
. Goldwyn was looking for a foreign-born actress that he could build up as the rival of Greta Garbo
, and possible successor to Vilma Banky
with whom Goldwyn had great success in the silent era. For two years after bringing Sten to America, Goldwyn had his new star tutored in English and taught Hollywood screen acting methods. He poured a great deal of time and money into Sten's first American film, Nana (1934), a somewhat homogenized version of Émile Zola
's scandalous nineteenth century novel. But the film was not successful at the box office, nor were her two subsequent Goldwyn films, We Live Again
(1934) and The Wedding Night
(1935), playing opposite Gary Cooper. Reluctantly, Goldwyn dissolved his contract with his "new Garbo." Goldwyn's tutoring of Sten is mentioned in Cole Porter
's 1934 song "Anything Goes
" from the musical of the same name
: "If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction / Instruct Anna Sten in diction / Then Anna shows / Anything goes."
In the 1940s, Sten appeared in several films, including The Man I Love (1940), So Ends Our Night (1941), Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas
(1943), They Came to Blow Up America (1943), Three Russian Girls (1943), and Let's Live a Little (1948). Sten continued making films in the United States and England, but none of them were successful. In the 1950s, she appeared in several television series, including The Red Skelton Show
(1956), The Walter Winchell File
(1957), and Adventures in Paradise
(1959).
, who flourished in Hollywood after following his wife there in 1932. Most of Anna Sten's later film appearances were favors to her husband. She had an uncredited bit in the Frenke-produced Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
(1957), and a full lead in her final film (also produced by Frenke), The Nun and the Sergeant
(1962).
Anna Sten died 12 November 1993 in New York City
at the age of 84.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
-born Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
silent film actress and later a Hollywood film star. She began her career in stage plays and films in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
before travelling to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where she starred in several films. Her film performances were noticed by film producer Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
, who brought her to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the aim of creating a new screen personality to rival the popularity of Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
. After a few unsuccessful films, Goldwyn released her from her contract. She continued to act occasionally until her final film appearance in 1962.
Early life
Annel Stenskaya Sudakevich was born 3 December 1908. Her father was a RussianRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
ballet master who died when she was 12. Her mother was Swedish. Sten worked as a waitress until she was discovered at the age of 15 while acting in an amateur play in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. Her discoverer was the influential Russian stage director and instructor Konstantin Stanislavsky, who arranged an audition for her at the Moscow Film Academy.
Film career
Sten acted in plays and films in Russia, including Boris Barnet's 1927 comedy The Girl with a HatboxThe Girl with a Hatbox
The Girl with a Hatbox is a Soviet silent film of Boris Barnet starring Anna Sten, Vladimir Mikhailov and Vladimir Fogel.-Plot:Natasha and her grandfather live in a cottage near Moscow, making hats for Madame Irène...
. She traveled to Germany to appear in films co-produced by German and Russian studios, international productions common in the years prior to World War II.
Making a smooth transition to talking pictures, Sten appeared in such German films as Trapeze (1931) and The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger and completed in November 1880...
(1931) until she came to the attention of American movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
. Goldwyn was looking for a foreign-born actress that he could build up as the rival of Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
, and possible successor to Vilma Banky
Vilma Bánky
Vilma Bánky was a Hungarian-born American silent film actress, although the early part of her acting career began in Budapest, spreading to France, Austria, and Germany...
with whom Goldwyn had great success in the silent era. For two years after bringing Sten to America, Goldwyn had his new star tutored in English and taught Hollywood screen acting methods. He poured a great deal of time and money into Sten's first American film, Nana (1934), a somewhat homogenized version of Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's scandalous nineteenth century novel. But the film was not successful at the box office, nor were her two subsequent Goldwyn films, We Live Again
We Live Again
We Live Again is a 1934 film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel Resurrection , starring Anna Sten and Frederic March...
(1934) and The Wedding Night
The Wedding Night
The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor, and starring Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, and Ralph Bellamy. Vidor won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1935), playing opposite Gary Cooper. Reluctantly, Goldwyn dissolved his contract with his "new Garbo." Goldwyn's tutoring of Sten is mentioned in Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
's 1934 song "Anything Goes
Anything Goes (song)
"Anything Goes" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for his musical Anything Goes . Many of the lyrics feature humorous references to various figures of scandal and gossip in Depression Era high society...
" from the musical of the same name
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
: "If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction / Instruct Anna Sten in diction / Then Anna shows / Anything goes."
In the 1940s, Sten appeared in several films, including The Man I Love (1940), So Ends Our Night (1941), Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas
Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas
Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas was a major war film made by Twentieth Century Fox in 1943. The film starred Philip Dorn, Anna Sten, and Martin Kosleck. The movie, originally titled The Seventh Column, was directed by Louis King based on a story by Jack Andrews, who also co-wrote the screenplay....
(1943), They Came to Blow Up America (1943), Three Russian Girls (1943), and Let's Live a Little (1948). Sten continued making films in the United States and England, but none of them were successful. In the 1950s, she appeared in several television series, including The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show
The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as...
(1956), The Walter Winchell File
The Walter Winchell File
The Walter Winchell File is the title of a TV crime drama that initially aired from 1957 to 1958, dramatizing cases from the New York City Police Department that were covered in the New York Daily Mirror. The series featured Walter Winchell, John Larch, George Cisar, Robert Anderson, Robert...
(1957), and Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener...
(1959).
Later life
Sten was married to film producer Eugene FrenkeEugene Frenke
Eugene Frenke was a Russian-born film producer, director and writer. He twice collaborated with the director John Huston on the films Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and The Barbarian and the Geisha....
, who flourished in Hollywood after following his wife there in 1932. Most of Anna Sten's later film appearances were favors to her husband. She had an uncredited bit in the Frenke-produced Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II....
(1957), and a full lead in her final film (also produced by Frenke), The Nun and the Sergeant
The Nun and the Sergeant
The Nun and the Sergeant is a 1962 Korean War war film starring Anna Sten and Robert Webber in the title roles. It was produced by Sten's husband Eugene Frenke who had produced Heaven Knows, Mr Allison that was also a pairing of a Catholic nun and a U.S. Marine...
(1962).
Anna Sten died 12 November 1993 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the age of 84.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1926 | Miss Mend Miss Mend Miss Mend is a 1926 Soviet feature film originally relised in three parts was directed by and starring Boris Barnet. The surviving print is just over four hours long... |
||
| 1927 | Devushka s korobkoy | Natasha | Also known as The Girl with a Hatbox The Girl with a Hatbox The Girl with a Hatbox is a Soviet silent film of Boris Barnet starring Anna Sten, Vladimir Mikhailov and Vladimir Fogel.-Plot:Natasha and her grandfather live in a cottage near Moscow, making hats for Madame Irène... |
| 1928 | Zemlya v plenu | Maria | |
| 1928 | Moy syn | Olga Surina | |
| 1928 | Belyy oryol | ||
| 1929 | Zolotoy klyuv | Varenka | |
| 1930 | Lohnbuchhalter Kremke | Kremkes Tochter | |
| 1931 | Les frères Karamazoff | Grouschenka | |
| 1931 | Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff | Gruschenka | |
| 1931 | I Salto Mortale | Marina | |
| 1931 | Bomben auf Monte Carlo Monte Carlo Madnes Monte Carlo Madnes is a 1931 German musical comedy film directed by Hanns Schwarz and starring Hans Albers, Anna Sten and Heinz Rühmann. It is based on the 1930 novel Bomben auf Monte Carlo by Fritz Reck-Malleczewen. A separate English language version Monte Carlo Madness and a French version Le... |
Yola | |
| 1932 | Stürme der Leidenschaft | Russen-Annya | |
| 1934 | Nana | Nana | |
| 1934 | We Live Again We Live Again We Live Again is a 1934 film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel Resurrection , starring Anna Sten and Frederic March... |
Katusha Maslova | |
| 1935 | The Wedding Night The Wedding Night The Wedding Night is a 1935 American romantic drama film directed by King Vidor, and starring Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, and Ralph Bellamy. Vidor won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.-Plot:... |
Manya Novak | |
| 1936 | A Woman Alone A Woman Alone (film) A Woman Alone is a 1936 British drama film directed by Eugene Frenke and starring Anna Sten, Henry Wilcoxon and Viola Keats. It was also released as Two Who Dared. An officer becomes entangled in a love affair with a woman who works as a maid.... |
Maria | |
| 1939 | Exile Express Exile Express - Cast :*Anna Sten as Nadine Nikolas*Alan Marshal as Steve Reynolds*Jerome Cowan as Paul Brandt*Walter Catlett as Gus*Jed Prouty as Hanley*Stanley Fields as Tony Kassan*Leonid Kinskey as David*Etienne Girardot as Caretaker*Irving Pichel as Victor... |
Nadine Nikolas | |
| 1940 | The Man I Married The Man I Married The Man I Married is a 1940 drama film starring Joan Bennett and Francis Lederer. An American woman marries a German, only to lose him to the Nazi Party when the couple travel to Germany.-Cast:... |
Frieda | |
| 1941 | So Ends Our Night So Ends Our Night So Ends Our Night is a 1941 drama war film starring Fredric March and directed by John Cromwell.- Plot :The story takes place in Germany during the Third Reich, when Hitler started to invade countries and persecuting to Jews and opponents of his regime... |
Lilo | |
| 1943 | Chetniks Chetniks Chetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II... |
Lubitca Mihailovitch | |
| 1943 | They Came to Blow Up America They Came to Blow Up America They Came to Blow Up America is a 1943 American war film drama based on Operation Pastorius, directed by Edward Ludwig. It stars George Sanders, Anna Sten and Ward Bond.-Plot:... |
Frau Reiter | |
| 1943 | Three Russian Girls Three Russian Girls Three Russian Girls is a 1943 American World War II pro-Soviet propaganda film produced by R-F Productions and distributed by United Artists. It followed in the footsteps of Mission to Moscow . It was nominated for an Oscar in 1945 for best musical score. It starred Anna Sten.-External links:*... |
Natasha | |
| 1948 | Let's Live a Little | Michele Bennett | |
| 1955 | Soldier of Fortune Soldier of Fortune (film) Soldier of Fortune is a 1955 adventure film about the rescue of an American held prisoner in the People's Republic of China in the 1950s. It was directed by Edward Dmytryk, starred Clark Gable and Susan Hayward and was written by Ernest K... |
Madame Dupree | |
| 1956 | The Red Skelton Show The Red Skelton Show The Red Skelton Show is an American variety show that was a television staple for two decades, from 1951 to 1971. It was second to Gunsmoke and third to The Ed Sullivan Show in the ratings during that time. Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as... |
Queen of Livonia | Television program Television program A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series... |
| 1956 | Runaway Daughters | Ruth Barton | |
| 1957 | The Walter Winchell File The Walter Winchell File The Walter Winchell File is the title of a TV crime drama that initially aired from 1957 to 1958, dramatizing cases from the New York City Police Department that were covered in the New York Daily Mirror. The series featured Walter Winchell, John Larch, George Cisar, Robert Anderson, Robert... |
Frieda | Television program |
| 1959 | Adventures in Paradise Adventures in Paradise Adventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener... |
Antonia | Television program |
| 1962 | The Nun and the Sergeant The Nun and the Sergeant The Nun and the Sergeant is a 1962 Korean War war film starring Anna Sten and Robert Webber in the title roles. It was produced by Sten's husband Eugene Frenke who had produced Heaven Knows, Mr Allison that was also a pairing of a Catholic nun and a U.S. Marine... |
Nun | |
| 1964 | Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American Police procedural/legal drama that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.The majority of episodes consisted of two segments... |
Mrs. Van de Heuven | Television program |
See also
- Vera KholodnayaVera KholodnayaVera Vasilyevna Kholodnaya was the first star of Russian silent cinema...
- Ossip RunitschOssip RunitschOssip Iliych Runitsch was a Russian silent film actor,producer and stage director.He was one of the biggest stars of Russian silent cinema and one of the first iconic figures of Russian cinematograph. In 1915-1919 he starred in some successful silent films of that time as "Molchi, grust.....
- Igor IlyinskyIgor IlyinskyIgor Vladimirovich Ilyinsky was a famous Russian actor and notable silent film comedian.-Early years:Igor Ilyinsky was born on 24 July 1901 in Moscow.At the age of 16 he entered the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre Studio and in half a year already debuted on the professional stage in Kommisarzhevskaya...
- Ivan MozzhukhinIvan MozzhukhinIvan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin (Russian: Иван Ильич Мозжухин was a Russian silent film actor.-Career in Russia:Mozzhukhin was born in Penza, Russia and studied law at Moscow State University. In 1910 he left academic life to join a troupe of traveling actors...
- Alla NazimovaAlla NazimovaAlla Nazimova , was a Russian 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.-Early life:...