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Alla Nazimova, (May 22, 1879 - July 13, 1945), was
a Ukraine|Ukrainian born stage and film actress,
scriptwriter, and producer.


Born Mariam Edez Adelaida Leventon, into a Jewish
family in Yalta in the Crimea which at the time
was a part of Russia but today is the independent
nation of Ukraine. She grew up in a very
dysfunctional family and was shuffled between
foster homes and relatives. Her emotional distress
caused her to rebel against authority as a way to
gain attention but nonetheless, she was a talented
child who was playing the violin by age seven. As
a teenager she began to pursue an interest in the
theatre and took acting lessons before joining a
theater company in Moscow.

Under the stage name, Alla Nazimova, her career
blossomed and she married a fellow actor but it
did not last long.  She toured Europe as well the
United States where her first Broadway
performances in 1906 drew critical acclaim.
Deciding to make the USA her home, she worked on
stage until she made her silent film debut in
1916. Over the next few years she made a number of
highly successful films that earned her a
considerable amount of money. She became widely
gossiped about for the outlandish and allegedly
debauched parties in her large mansion  on Sunset
Boulevard known as the Garden of Allah. Her studio
squelched the stories surfacing about her
bisexuality|bisexual lifestyle and to cover it up,
for more than a dozen years she lived in a
partnership of mutual convenience with a gay actor
of the day, Charles Bryant. A friend of actress
Edith Luckett and her very conservative husband,
Dr. Loyal Davis, Nazimova was made godmother to
Luckett's daughter by her previous marriage,
former first lady Nancy Reagan|Nancy Reagan in
1921.

In 1918, at age 39, Nazimova felt confident enough
in her abilities that she began producing and
writing films in which she also starred. Daring
for the times, in her adaptations of works by such
notable playwrights as  Oscar Wilde or Henrik
Ibsen she instituted her own ideas for filmmaking.
However, her creativity did not meet consumer
tastes and the films lost a great deal of money.
By 1925 she no longer could afford to invest in
more films and financial backers withdrew their
support. With little choice, she gave up on the
film industry, returning to perform on Broadway
until the early 1940s when she appeared in a few
more films, ostensibly in need of money.

Alla Nazimova survived breast cancer but died of a
coronary thrombosis at the age of 66 in 1945 in
Los Angeles, and was interred in Forest Lawn
Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Her contribution to the film industry has been
recognized through a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.