Before appearing on the screen as Maleva the Gypsy Fortuneteller in "The Wolf Man" (1941) and "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943), Maria Ouspenskaya already had a storied career. Ouspenskaya was born in Tula, Russia and had studied acting and singing in Moscow and Poland, respectively. It was in Moscow that she had became one of the founding members of the First Studio, the theater subset of the Moscow Art Theater where she studied under Konstantin Stanislavsky. Ouspenskaya would end up training actors at the American Laboratory Theatre in New York City and schools she herself co-founded such as the School of Dramatic Arts in New York and the Maria Ouspenskaya School of Dance in Los Angeles.
Ouspenskaya had dabbled in film in Russia, having made some silents from 1915-1929. To keep the School of Dramatic Arts open, she began to make movies for Hollywood. Her first film "Dodsworth" (1936) immediately earned her an Academy nomination playing Gregory Gaye's mother. Although with a heavy accent and superior attitude with a heavy pension for astrology, Ouspenskaya was not an easy woman to work with but had worked consecutively up until her best known role and even afterwards.
But Ouspenskaya's best contribution to Hollywood is training many actors and actresses in the Stanislavsky Method including Anne Baxter, John Garfield, and the acting teacher who would epitomize what would become The Method, Lee Strasberg. She taught Walt Disney model (best known for dancing for "Snow White") Marge Champion. Ouspenskaya died after having suffered from a stroke and allegedly severe cigarette burns having fallen asleep while smoking a cigarette.
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