Soviet American actress Anna Sten

Soviet American actress Anna Sten

When in 1935, French actor, cabaret singer and entertainer Maurice Chevalier (1888 – 1972) was asked to list the 10 most beautiful women in the world, he named Anna Sten, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, French actress Annabella, Loretta Young, Merle Oberon, Clara Bow, Kay Francis and others. In Hollywood, the mid-1930s Anna became famous for her ability to pick up clothes. American film producer and studio executive Darryl Francis Zanuck (1902 – 1979) said that she dresses better than anyone he had ever seen. A female director Dorothy Arzner (1897 – 1979) filmed Anna Stan in drama “Nana”, put her on a par with Garbo, Miriam Hopkins, Katharine Hepburn and Ruth Chatterton in his list of the most glamorous actresses. Soviet American actress Anna Sten was born Anna Petrovna Fesak, on December 3, 1908 in Kiev, the Russian Empire.

Anna’s father was a dancer, worked as a theater art director, and died in 1917. Her mother, a Swede by birth, was a dancer. As a child, Anna was engaged in dances, took piano lessons. Reliable data about the early period of her career almost did not survive. There is speculation that after her father’s death, Anna found a job as a waitress, then played in amateur theater. Then fifteen-year-old actress drew the attention of Stanislavsky and, under his patronage, she entered the Moscow Film Academy.

In 1926, Anne made her debut in a silent movie, received a small role of a stenographer in the comedy “Miss Mend”. Screenwriter of the film was Boris Barnet, who later became a famous Soviet film director, and in 1933 for his anti-war film “Outskirts” was awarded a prize of the Venice Film Festival. He also starred in the title role and acted as assistant to director Fyodor Otsep (1927–1931), who became Anna’s husband in 1927. In subsequent years Otsep shot his wife in four more films.

The career of the actress in the Soviet Union was developing rapidly. She got the main roles already in 1927, starring in the comedy “The Girl with the box”, directed by Boris Barnet. Then, in 1928, followed leading roles in the films “Earth in captivity”, “My son” and “White Eagle”, whose director was one of the pioneers of Russian cinema Yakov Protazanov and partners of Anna were a theater actor Vasily Kachalov and director Vsevolod Meyerhold.

in 1932 Anna Sten was noticed by Samuel Goldwyn, who was looking for an enigmatic actress equal Swedish born Greta Garbo. For two years after bringing Sten to America, Goldwyn had his new star tutored in English and taught Hollywood screen acting methods. Although Anna appeared in several more films, the project of Samuel Goldwyn on creating an enigmatic Hollywood star failed.

Sten’s later film appearances were favors to her husband. Sten died on November 12, 1993 in New York City at the age of 84.

Soviet American actress Anna Sten

sources
kinopoisk.ru/name/205321/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sten