Anna Sten

Anna Sten was a Ukrainian-born actress who began in Soviet theater and film before traveling to Germany, where she starred in several pictures, among them Salto Mortale and The Murderer Dimitri Karamazov. Born in Kiev to a ballet master father and a ballerina mother, she trained at Kiev State Theater College and appeared in Viktor Turin's Provokator in 1926. American producer Samuel Goldwyn noticed her performances and brought her to the United States, hoping to make her a rival to Greta Garbo, and spent two years on English lessons and Hollywood acting coaching before Nana in 1934. That film and her next two, We Live Again and The Wedding Night (1935), fared poorly at the box office and Goldwyn ended the contract. She continued acting into the 1960s, studied at The Actors Studio, appeared on television, and ended with The Nun and the Sergeant in 1962.