Paula Strasberg
Paula Strasberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | Pearl Miller March 8, 1909 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | April 29, 1966 (aged 57)[1] New York City, U.S. |
| Other names | Pauline Miller |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, acting coach |
| Spouse(s) |
Harry Stein
(m. 1929; div. 1935) |
| Children | Susan Strasberg John Strasberg |
Paula Strasberg (born Pearl Miller; March 8, 1909 – April 29, 1966) was an American stage actress. She became actor and teacher Lee Strasberg's second wife and mother of actors John and Susan Strasberg, as well as Marilyn Monroe's acting coach and confidante.
Career
[edit]Born Pearl Miller to a Jewish family,[3] she made her debut on Broadway in 1927, appearing in The Cradle Song. Two years later, she married her first husband, Harry Stein, whom she divorced in 1935. The union was childless. She appeared in more than 20 stage roles until Me and Molly in 1948. A life member of the Actors Studio,[4] she married Lee Strasberg in 1935, just days after her first marriage ended.
She was later blacklisted for her membership in the American Communist Party, although her husband was not a member and suffered no adverse effects on his career. She went on to become Marilyn Monroe's acting coach and confidante until Monroe's death in 1962, supplanting Natasha Lytess.[5] In the 2011 film, My Week With Marilyn, Strasberg is played by Zoe Wanamaker.
Personal life
[edit]Her children, Susan Strasberg (1938–1999) and John Strasberg (born 1941), were also actors. Susan described her mother as a "combination delicatessen, pharmacist, Jewish mother".[6]
Death
[edit]Paula Strasberg died of bone marrow cancer at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan on April 29, 1966, aged 57, and is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. She was survived by her husband, their two children, and a younger sister, Beatrice.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Paula Strasberg Dies". The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 1966-05-02. p. 43. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
- ^ Harry Stein reference, ancestrylibrary.com; accessed September 16, 2016.
- ^ Meyers, Jeffrey (January 19, 2012). The Genius and the Goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. University of Illinois Press; 1st edition. p. 155. ISBN 9780252078545.
- ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 280. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
- ^ "Method or Madness: Marilyn at the Actors Studio". The Marilyn Report. 4 April 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ Summers, Anthony (1986). Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. New American Library. p. 173. ISBN 0-451-40014-3.
- ^ Profile Archived 2023-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, cursumperficio.net; accessed March 4, 2015.
External links
[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
- 1909 births
- 1966 deaths
- American communists
- American stage actresses
- American acting coaches
- Burials at Westchester Hills Cemetery
- Hollywood blacklist
- Jewish American actresses
- Actresses from New York City
- Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
- Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States
- 20th-century American actresses
- 20th-century American musicians