Stella Adler
Encyclopedia
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting
in New York City (1949) and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting
in Los Angeles (1985) with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy. Her grandson Tom Oppenheim now runs the school in New York, which produced alumni including Marlon Brando
, Robert De Niro
, and Jenny Lumet, daughter of Sidney Lumet
. Irene Gilbert, long-time protege and close personal friend, founded the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in bringing Stella Adler to the West Coast to teach on a permanent basis. The LA school continues to flourish as an acting studio and houses several theaters, alumni of the Stella Adler-Los Angeles school include Mark Ruffalo
, Benicio Del Toro
, Salma Hayek
, Clifton Collins Jr. & Sean Astin
.
's Lower East Side
, Adler was a member of the Jewish-American Adler acting dynasty, the youngest daughter of Sara
and Jacob P. Adler, the sister of Luther
and Jay Adler
, and half-sister of Charles Adler
; in fact all her five siblings were actors. They were a significant part of a vital ethnic theatrical scene that thrived in New York from the late 19th century well into the 1950s. Stella Adler would become the most famous and influential member of her family. She began acting at the age of four as a part of the "Independent Yiddish Art Company" of her parents, and concluded it 55 years later, in 1961. During that time, and for years after, Stella Adler taught acting as well.
She made her English-language debut on Broadway in 1922, as the Butterfly in the play 'The World We Live In', and also spent a season in the vaudeville circuit. In 1922-1923, the renowned Russian actor-director Constantin Stanislavski made his only US tour with his Moscow Art Theatre
. Adler and many others saw these performances; this had a powerful and lasting impact on her career, as well as the 20th century American theatre. She joined the American Laboratory Theatre School in 1925; there she was introduced to Stanislavski's theories, from founders and Russian actor-teachers and former members of the Moscow Art Theater - Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya
. In 1931 she joined the Group Theatre, New York
, founded by Harold Clurman
, Lee Strasberg
and Cheryl Crawford
, through theater director and critic, Clurman, whom she later married in 1943. With Group theatre she worked in plays like 'Success Story' by John Howard Lawson, two Clifford Odets
plays, 'Awake and Sing!
' and 'Paradise Lost
,' and directed the touring company of Odets's 'Golden Boy' and 'More to Give to People'. Members of Group Theatre were leading interpreters of the Method acting technique based on the work and writings of Stanislavski.
In 1934, Adler went to Paris with Harold Clurman and studied intensively with Stanislavski for five weeks. During this period, she learned that Stanislavski had revised his theories, emphasizing that the actor should create by imagination rather than memory. Upon her return, she broke away from Strasberg on the fundamental aspects of Method acting.
In January 1937, Adler moved to Hollywood. There she acted in films for six years under the name Stella Ardler, occasionally returning to the Group Theater until it dissolved in 1941. Eventually she returned to New York to act, direct and teach, the latter first at Erwin Piscator
's Dramatic Workshop
at the New School for Social Research, New York City, before founding Stella Adler Studio of Acting
in 1949. In the coming years, she taught Marlon Brando
, Judy Garland
, Dolores del Río
, Robert De Niro
, Elaine Stritch
, Martin Sheen
, Manu Tupou
, Harvey Keitel
, Melanie Griffith
, Peter Bogdanovich
and Warren Beatty
, among others, the principles of characterization and script analysis. She also taught at the New School, and the Yale School of Drama
. For many years, Adler led the undergraduate drama department at New York University
, and became one of America's leading acting teachers.
Adler was Marlon Brando's first professional acting teacher.
In 1988, she published 'The Technique of Acting' (Bantam Books), with a foreword by Brando.
From 1926 until 1952, Adler appeared regularly on Broadway
. Her later stage roles include the 1946 revival of 'He Who Gets Slapped' and an eccentric mother in the 1961 black comedy, 'Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad.' Among the plays she directed was a 1956 revival of the Paul Green-Kurt Weill antiwar musical 'Johnny Johnson'. Acting Now: Conversations on Craft and Career, by Edward Vilga. She appeared in only three films, Love on Toast (1937), Shadow of the Thin Man
(1941), and My Girl Tisa (1948).
over the Stanislavski System
(later developed by Strasberg into Method acting) made her leave the Group.
Adler once said: 'Drawing on the emotions I experienced, for example, when my mother died to create a role, is sick and schizophrenic. If that is acting, I don't want to do it.'
Adler met with Stanislavsky again later in his career and questioned him on Strasberg's interpretation. He told her that he had abandoned emotional memory (which had been Strasberg's dominant paradigm) but they both believed that if the actor did not have what is required to play a variety roles already instilled inside them, extensive research was needed to understand the experiences of characters who have different values originating from different cultures. Without this work she said an actor walks onto the stage "naked." This approach is what one of her students, Robert de Niro, became famous for. She also trained actors sensory imagination to help make the characters' experiences more vivid (a commonality between her and Strasberg). Mastery of the physical and vocal aspects of acting, she believed, was necessary for the actor to command the stage: all body language should be carefully crafted and voices need to be clear and expressive. She often referred to this as an actor's "size" or "worthiness of the stage."
, the famous director and critic and one of the founders of the Group Theatre, and finally to Mitchell A. Wilson
, the physicist
and novelist who died in 1973.
From 1938 to 1946 she was a sister-in-law to actress Sylvia Sidney
. Sidney was married to her brother Luther at the time and provided Stella with a niece and nephew. Ever after Sidney and Luther divorced she and Sylvia remained close friends.
She died on December 21, 1992, from heart failure at the age of 91, in Los Angeles, California
. Adler was survived by her daughter Ellen, her sister Julia, and two grandchildren, including Tom Oppenheim,current president and artistic director of Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York City. She was interred in the Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, New York.
acquired Adler's complete archive. It includes correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, video and audiotapes, photographs and other materials. The archive traces her career from her start in the New York Yiddish Theater to her encounters with Stanislavski and the Group Theatre to her lectures at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
In 2006, she was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
in front of the 'Stella Adler Theatre' at 6773 Hollywood Boulevard.
, Elaine Stritch
, Martin Sheen
, Roy Scheider
, Vincent D'Onofrio
, Mark Ruffalo
, Warren Beatty, Michael Imperioli
, Salma Hayek
, Sean Astin
, Barbara Stuart
, Joyce Meadows
, Stephen Bauer and Benicio del Toro
, in addition to Marlon Brando
, who served as the New York studio's Honorary Chairman until his death, and was replaced by another pupil, Warren Beatty
.
Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Stella Adler Studio of Acting is an acting school in New York founded by the actress and teacher Stella Adler -History:...
in New York City (1949) and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting
Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Stella Adler Studio of Acting is an acting school in New York founded by the actress and teacher Stella Adler -History:...
in Los Angeles (1985) with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy. Her grandson Tom Oppenheim now runs the school in New York, which produced alumni including Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, and Jenny Lumet, daughter of Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
. Irene Gilbert, long-time protege and close personal friend, founded the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in Los Angeles, and was instrumental in bringing Stella Adler to the West Coast to teach on a permanent basis. The LA school continues to flourish as an acting studio and houses several theaters, alumni of the Stella Adler-Los Angeles school include Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
, Benicio Del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
, Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
, Clifton Collins Jr. & Sean Astin
Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...
.
Early life
Born in New York CityNew 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...
's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, Adler was a member of the Jewish-American Adler acting dynasty, the youngest daughter of Sara
Sara Adler
Sara Adler was a Russian Jewish actress in Yiddish theater who made her career mainly in the United States. She was the wife of Jacob Adler and the mother of prominent actors Luther and Stella Adler, lesser-known actors Jay, Julia Adler, Frances, and Florence...
and Jacob P. Adler, the sister of Luther
Luther Adler
Luther Adler was an American actor best known for his work in theatre, but who also worked in film and television. He also directed plays on Broadway.-Life and career:...
and Jay Adler
Jay Adler
Jay Adler was an American actor in theater, television, and film.Born in New York City, New York, he was the eldest child of Yiddish theater stars Jacob and Sara Adler, and the brother of the more famous Luther and Stella.Jay Adler died at age 81 in Woodland Hills, California and was buried in the...
, and half-sister of Charles Adler
Charles Adler (stage actor)
Charles Adler was an American stage and motion picture actor of the 1920s to 1940s. He was the son of actors Jacob Pavlovitch Adler and Jenny Kaiser and stepson of Sara Adler, and the half-brother of Luther Adler, Stella Adler, and Jay Adler, all also actors.He was a member of the Yacht Club Boys,...
; in fact all her five siblings were actors. They were a significant part of a vital ethnic theatrical scene that thrived in New York from the late 19th century well into the 1950s. Stella Adler would become the most famous and influential member of her family. She began acting at the age of four as a part of the "Independent Yiddish Art Company" of her parents, and concluded it 55 years later, in 1961. During that time, and for years after, Stella Adler taught acting as well.
Career
She began her acting career at the age of four in the play 'Broken Hearts' at the Grand Street Theater on the Lower East Side, as a part of her parents 'Independent Yiddish Art Company'. She grew up acting alongside her parents, often playing roles of boys and girls. Her work schedule allowed little time for schooling, but when possible, she studied at public schools and New York University. She made her London debut, at the age of 18, as 'Naomi' in the play 'Elisa Ben Avia' with her father's company, in which she appeared for a year before returning to New York. In London she met her first husband, Englishman Horace Eliashcheff; their brief marriage however ended in a divorce.She made her English-language debut on Broadway in 1922, as the Butterfly in the play 'The World We Live In', and also spent a season in the vaudeville circuit. In 1922-1923, the renowned Russian actor-director Constantin Stanislavski made his only US tour with his Moscow Art Theatre
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
. Adler and many others saw these performances; this had a powerful and lasting impact on her career, as well as the 20th century American theatre. She joined the American Laboratory Theatre School in 1925; there she was introduced to Stanislavski's theories, from founders and Russian actor-teachers and former members of the Moscow Art Theater - Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Ouspenskaya
Maria Alekseyevna Ouspenskaya was a Russian actress and acting teacher. She achieved success as a stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films.-Life and career:...
. In 1931 she joined the Group Theatre, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, founded by Harold Clurman
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman was a visionary American theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United States". He was most notable as one of the three founders of the New York City's Group Theatre...
, Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
and Cheryl Crawford
Cheryl Crawford
Cheryl Crawford was an American theatre producer and director.Born in Akron, Ohio, Crawford majored in drama at Smith College. Following graduation, she moved to New York City and enrolled at the Theatre Guild's school...
, through theater director and critic, Clurman, whom she later married in 1943. With Group theatre she worked in plays like 'Success Story' by John Howard Lawson, two Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
plays, 'Awake and Sing!
Awake and Sing!
Awake and Sing! is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.-Summary and characters:...
' and 'Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
,' and directed the touring company of Odets's 'Golden Boy' and 'More to Give to People'. Members of Group Theatre were leading interpreters of the Method acting technique based on the work and writings of Stanislavski.
In 1934, Adler went to Paris with Harold Clurman and studied intensively with Stanislavski for five weeks. During this period, she learned that Stanislavski had revised his theories, emphasizing that the actor should create by imagination rather than memory. Upon her return, she broke away from Strasberg on the fundamental aspects of Method acting.
In January 1937, Adler moved to Hollywood. There she acted in films for six years under the name Stella Ardler, occasionally returning to the Group Theater until it dissolved in 1941. Eventually she returned to New York to act, direct and teach, the latter first at Erwin Piscator
Erwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer and, with Bertolt Brecht, the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or on the production's formal...
's Dramatic Workshop
Dramatic Workshop
Dramatic Workshop was the name of a drama and acting school associated with the New School for Social Research in New York City. It was launched in 1940 by German expatriate stage director Erwin Piscator. Among the faculty were Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, among the students Marlon Brando, Tony...
at the New School for Social Research, New York City, before founding Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Stella Adler Studio of Acting is an acting school in New York founded by the actress and teacher Stella Adler -History:...
in 1949. In the coming years, she taught Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood...
, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
, Manu Tupou
Manu Tupou
Manu Tupou was an American-based Fijian actor, writer, director, and teacher.-Education:He trained for 15 years in New York under the finest teachers: Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Harold Clurman, Sanford Meisner...
, Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
, Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
, Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
and Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, among others, the principles of characterization and script analysis. She also taught at the New School, and the Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
. For many years, Adler led the undergraduate drama department at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, and became one of America's leading acting teachers.
"Stella Adler was much more than a teacher of acting. Through her work she imparts the most valuable kind of information - how to discover the nature of our own emotional mechanics and therefore those of others. She never lent herself to vulgar exploitations, as some other well-known so-called "methods" of acting have done. As a result, her contributions to the theatrical culturePresentational acting and Representational actingPresentational acting and the related representational acting are critical terms used within theatre aesthetics and criticism.Due to the same terms being applied to certain approaches to acting that contradict the broader theatrical definitions, however, the terms have come to acquire often overtly...
have remained largely unknown, unrecognized, and unappreciated."
- -Marlon Brando
Adler was Marlon Brando's first professional acting teacher.
In 1988, she published 'The Technique of Acting' (Bantam Books), with a foreword by Brando.
From 1926 until 1952, Adler appeared regularly on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Her later stage roles include the 1946 revival of 'He Who Gets Slapped' and an eccentric mother in the 1961 black comedy, 'Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad.' Among the plays she directed was a 1956 revival of the Paul Green-Kurt Weill antiwar musical 'Johnny Johnson'. Acting Now: Conversations on Craft and Career, by Edward Vilga. She appeared in only three films, Love on Toast (1937), Shadow of the Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man is the fourth of the six The Thin Man films. It was released in 1941 and was directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Also, in this film their son Nick Jr. is old enough to figure in the comic subplot...
(1941), and My Girl Tisa (1948).
Stanislavski and The Method
Adler was the only American actor to study with Constantin Stanislavski. She was a prominent member of the Group Theatre, but differences with Lee StrasbergLee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
over the Stanislavski System
Stanislavski System
Stanislavski's system is a progression of techniques used to train actors to draw believable emotions to their performances. The method that was originally created and used by Constantin Stanislavski from 1911-1916 was based on the concept of emotional memory for which an actor focuses internally...
(later developed by Strasberg into Method acting) made her leave the Group.
Adler once said: 'Drawing on the emotions I experienced, for example, when my mother died to create a role, is sick and schizophrenic. If that is acting, I don't want to do it.'
Adler met with Stanislavsky again later in his career and questioned him on Strasberg's interpretation. He told her that he had abandoned emotional memory (which had been Strasberg's dominant paradigm) but they both believed that if the actor did not have what is required to play a variety roles already instilled inside them, extensive research was needed to understand the experiences of characters who have different values originating from different cultures. Without this work she said an actor walks onto the stage "naked." This approach is what one of her students, Robert de Niro, became famous for. She also trained actors sensory imagination to help make the characters' experiences more vivid (a commonality between her and Strasberg). Mastery of the physical and vocal aspects of acting, she believed, was necessary for the actor to command the stage: all body language should be carefully crafted and voices need to be clear and expressive. She often referred to this as an actor's "size" or "worthiness of the stage."
Personal life
Adler married three times, first to Horace Eliascheff, the father of her only child Ellen, then from 1943 to 1960 to Harold ClurmanHarold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman was a visionary American theatre director and drama critic, "one of the most influential in the United States". He was most notable as one of the three founders of the New York City's Group Theatre...
, the famous director and critic and one of the founders of the Group Theatre, and finally to Mitchell A. Wilson
Mitchell A. Wilson
Mitchell A Wilson was an American novelist and physicist.-Biography:Raised on Stagecoach Road in Killeen, TX by a frugal couple, Mitchell was taught three things early in life that he carried with him to his final days: Budget your finances daily, play the piano regularly and water skiing was only...
, the physicist
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and novelist who died in 1973.
From 1938 to 1946 she was a sister-in-law to actress Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney
Sylvia Sidney was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s appearing in numerous crime dramas.-Early life:...
. Sidney was married to her brother Luther at the time and provided Stella with a niece and nephew. Ever after Sidney and Luther divorced she and Sylvia remained close friends.
She died on December 21, 1992, from heart failure at the age of 91, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Adler was survived by her daughter Ellen, her sister Julia, and two grandchildren, including Tom Oppenheim,current president and artistic director of Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York City. She was interred in the Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, New York.
Legacy
In 2004, The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research CenterHarry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
acquired Adler's complete archive. It includes correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, video and audiotapes, photographs and other materials. The archive traces her career from her start in the New York Yiddish Theater to her encounters with Stanislavski and the Group Theatre to her lectures at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
In 2006, she was honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
in front of the 'Stella Adler Theatre' at 6773 Hollywood Boulevard.
Stella Adler Schools
The Acting schools Adler founded still operate today in New York City and Los Angeles. Her method, based on use of the actor's imagination, has been studied by many renowned actors, such as Robert De NiroRobert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
, Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
, Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
, Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...
, Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
, Warren Beatty, Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli
James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
, Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault is a Mexican film actress, director and producer. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.-Early life:...
, Sean Astin
Sean Astin
Sean Astin is an American film actor, director, voice artist, and producer better known for his film roles as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, the title character of Rudy, and Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In television, he appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24...
, Barbara Stuart
Barbara Stuart
Barbara Ann Stuart was an American actress.-Major roles:Stuart portrayed "Miss Bunny", the girlfriend of Sergeant Vincent Carter, played by Frank Sutton, on three seasons of CBS's Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C....
, Joyce Meadows
Joyce Meadows
Joyce Meadows is a Canadian-American actress. From 1960-1961, she co-starred as Stacy in the syndicated western series Two Faces West with Charles Bateman and Francis De Sales...
, Stephen Bauer and Benicio del Toro
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
, in addition to Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, who served as the New York studio's Honorary Chairman until his death, and was replaced by another pupil, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
.
Career on Broadway
All works are the original Broadway productions unless otherwise noted.- The Straw Hat (1926)
- Big Lake (1927)
- The House of Connelly (1931)
- 1931 (1931)
- Night Over Taos (1932)
- Success Story (1932)
- Big Night (1933)
- Hilda Cassidy (1933)
- Gentlewoman (1934)
- Gold Eagle Guy (1934)
- Awake and Sing!Awake and Sing!Awake and Sing! is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.-Summary and characters:...
(1935) - Paradise Lost (1935)
- Sons and Soldiers (1943)
- Pretty Little Parlor (1944)
- He Who Gets SlappedHe Who Gets SlappedHe Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert. It was directed by Victor Sjöström. The film is based on the Russian play Тот, кто получает пощёчины by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was published in 1914 and in English, as He Who Gets Slapped, in 1922...
— revivalRevival (play)A revival is a restaging of a stage production after its original run has closed. New material may be added. A filmed version is said to be an adaptation and requires writing of a screenplay....
(1946) - Manhattan Nocturne (1943)
- Sunday Breakfast (1952)
Works
- The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties, By Harold Clurman, Stella Adler. Da Capo PressDa Capo PressDa Capo Press, is an American publishing company with headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers. it had additional offices in offices in New York City, Philadelphia and Emeryville, California...
, 1983. ISBN 0306801868. - The Technique of Acting, by Stella Adler. Bantam Books, 1988. ISBN 0553052993.
- Creating a Character: A Physical Approach to Acting, by Moni Yakim, Muriel Broadman, Stella Adler. Applause Books, 1993. ISBN 155783161.
- Stella Adler: The Art of Acting, by Stella Adler, Howard Kissel, Applause Books, 2000. ISBN 1557833737.
- Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov, by Stella Adler, Barry Paris. Random House Inc, 2001. ISBN 0679746986.
Quotes
- "In your choices lies your talent."
- "Don't use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don't want you to be stuck with your own life. It's too little."
- "You can't be boring. Life is boring. The weather is boring. Actors must not be boring."
- "Growth as an actor and as a human being are synonymous."
- "A junkieSubstance dependenceThe section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong." - "The word theatre comes from the GreeksGreeksThe Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time. The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation." - "Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."
- "The play is not in the words, it's in you!"
Further reading
- Acting with Adler, by Joanna Rotté. Limelight Editions, 2000. ISBN 0879102985.
See also
- Mikhail Chekhov
- Uta HagenUta HagenUta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
- Estelle HarmanEstelle HarmanEstelle Harman was an acting coach in Los Angeles. She began as an acting instructor at UCLA in the 1950s, then was hired by Universal Studios as Head of Talent to groom their stable of film actors, which included Rock Hudson, Bill Bixby, Tony Curtis and Audie Murphy.As the contract years ended...
- Robert Lewis
External links
- Judith Laikin Elkin, Stella Adler, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
- Stella Adler Los Angeles
- Stella Adler Studio of Acting
- Stella Adler News at The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...