Stella Adler Conservatory of Drama
by Sylviastel | created - 06 Mar 2015 | updated - 06 Mar 2015 | Public
1. Stella Adler
Actress | Shadow of the Thin Man
Stella Adler was born on February 10, 1901, in New York, the youngest daughter of the Yiddish theater actors, Jacob P. Adler and Sarah Adler, who founded an acting dynasty. In addition to her parents, Stella's family included her siblings Charles Adler, Jay Adler, Julia and Luther Adler, all of whom...
founder; namesake of the Stella Adler Theatre and School of Acting in New York City and Los Angeles, California.
2. Harold Clurman
Director | Deadline at Dawn
Harold Clurman was born on September 18, 1901 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director, known for Deadline at Dawn (1946), Play of the Week (1959) and All My Sons (1948). He was married to Juleen Compton and Stella Adler. He died on September 9, 1980 in New York City, New York, USA.
Contributor and namesake of the Art Series.
3. Joanne Linville
Actress | Star Trek
Joanne Linville made her mark on television from the 1950s-1980s, appearing in such respected anthology series as Studio One (1948), Kraft Theatre (1947) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), among others. While her film work consisted mainly of smaller character roles and she never had regular ...
co-opened the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting on Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle in Los Angeles, California. Drama teacher.
4. Nick Nolte
Actor | Warrior
Nick Nolte was born in Omaha, Nebraska and began his career on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse and in regional theatre productions. His breakthrough role was in the TV miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), playing the role of "Tom/Tommy Jordache". Nick Nolte said that when he played a young man in ...
Hollywood conservatory
5. Salma Hayek
Actress | Frida
Salma Hayek was born on September 2, 1966 in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. Her father is of Lebanese descent and her mother is of Mexican/Spanish ancestry. After having seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) in a local movie theater, she decided she wanted to become an actress. At age 12, she...
Hollywood conservatory
6. Eric Stoltz
Actor | Pulp Fiction
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is a theater-trained actor and producer who has starred in both independent and studio films. He was born on September 30, 1961 in Whittier, California, to Evelyn Vawter, a violinist and schoolteacher, and Jack Stoltz, an elementary school teacher. He has English, German and ...
Hollywood conservatory
7. Deidre Hall
Actress | Days of Our Lives
Deidre Hall has emerged as one of America's most beloved actresses, who delighted her fans in August 1991, when she returned to NBC-TV's number one daytime program, Days of Our Lives (1965). Hall created the role of "Dr. Marlena Evans" in 1976, a character whose popularity has created a furor and a...
Hollywood conservatory
8. Sean Astin
Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor, voice actor, screenwriter, director, producer, family man, author, marathon runner, political activist and philanthropist who is well known for his film debut portraying Mikey in Steven Spielberg's The Goonies (1985), for playing...
Hollywood conservatory
9. John Jopson
Director | Terroir
Director / Screenwriter / Playwright / Producer / Cinematographer John Charles Jopson studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory. He began his career shooting Formula One racing. He was one of the pioneer music video directors in the early 1980s, working with such artists as Hall & Oates, Willy ...
Hollywood conservatory as John Charles Jopson.
10. John Ritter
Actor | Sling Blade
Jonathan Southworth Ritter was born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. He was the son of legendary country singer/actor Tex Ritter (born Woodward Maurice Ritter) and his wife, actress Dorothy Fay (née Dorothy Fay Southworth). The couple married in 1941 and had their first child, Tom ...
Hollywood conservatory
11. Cybill Shepherd
Actress | Cybill
Cybill Lynne Shepherd was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Patty, a homemaker, and William Shepherd, a small business owner. Named after her grandfather, Cy, and her father, Bill, Shepherd's career began at a young age in modeling, when she won the "Miss Teenage Memphis" contest in 1966 and the "...
Hollywood conservatory
12. Michael Richards
Actor | Seinfeld
Immortalized as Cosmo Kramer on the classic sitcom Seinfeld (1989), West Coast comedy star Michael Richards was born on July 24, 1949, and raised in South Los Angeles, California, to Phyllis (Nardozzi), an Italian-American medical records librarian, and William Richards, an electrical engineer. ...
Hollywood conservatory
13. Benicio Del Toro
Actor | Sicario
Benicio Del Toro emerged in the mid-1990s as one of the most watchable and charismatic character actors to come along in years. A favorite of film buffs, Del Toro gained mainstream public attention as the conflicted but basically honest Mexican policeman in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000).
...
Hollywood conservatory
14. Mark Ruffalo
Actor | Spotlight
Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of humble means to father Frank Lawrence Ruffalo, a construction painter and Marie Rose (Hebert), a stylist and hairdresser; his father's ancestry is Italian and his mother is of half French-Canadian and half ...
Hollywood conservatory
15. Irene Gilbert
Actress | Barnaby Jones
Irene Gilbert was born on August 25, 1934 in Brandenburg, Germany. She was an actress and costume designer, known for Barnaby Jones (1973), Simon & Simon (1981) and Emergency! (1972). She was married to Ronald Packenham Law. She died on May 21, 2011 in Eureka, California, USA.
co-founder with Joanne Linville and with permission by Stella Adler. There is a theatre named the Irene Gilbert Theatre.
16. Ellen Adler
Self | Method or Madness?
Ellen Adler is known for Method or Madness?, Dad Strangelove and Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2013). She was previously married to David Oppenheim.
Stella's daughter. She is the Studio's Executive Chair.
17. Tom Oppenheim
Actor | Wolf
Tom Oppenheim is known for Wolf (1994), Going Nomad (1998) and Virgin (2003).
grandson of Stella Adler and son of Ellen Adler; Artistic director and President.
18. Warren Beatty
Actor | Heaven Can Wait
Since starring in his first film, Splendor in the Grass (1961), Warren Beatty has been said to have demonstrated a greater longevity in movies than any actor of his generation. Few people have taken so many responsibilities for all phases of the production of films as producer, director, writer, ...
19. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
20. Robert De Niro
Actor | Cape Fear
One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...
21. Candice Bergen
Actress | Miss Congeniality
One cool, eternally classy lady, Candice Bergen was elegantly poised for trendy "ice princess" stardom when she first arrived on the '60s screen, but she gradually reshaped that débutante image in the '70s, both on- and off-camera. A staunch, outspoken feminist with a decisive edge, she went on to ...
22. Peter Bogdanovich
Director | The Last Picture Show
Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter ...
23. James Coburn
Actor | The Great Escape
Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting coach Stella Adler. After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a handful of minor westerns ...
24. Clifton Collins Jr.
Actor | Star Trek
An acting chameleon who can easily lose himself in the life of his film and television characters, Clifton Collins Jr. is a native Angeleno who grew up destined to become a part of the Latino entertainment industry. His great-grandparents on his mother's side were a Mexican trumpet player and ...
25. Valeria Gastaldi
Actress | 27: El club de los malditos
Valeria Gastaldi was born on December 5, 1981 in San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is an actress, known for 27: The Cursed Club (2018), Soy tu fan (2006) and Vivir intentando (2003).
26. Alexander Godunov
Actor | Die Hard
He was born on Sakhalin Island at the far eastern end of the former Soviet Union and began studying dance at age 9 in the Riga State Ballet School. He later said his mother put him there to prevent his becoming "a hooligan". One of his classmates and friends at the school was Mikhail Baryshnikov. ...
27. Melanie Griffith
Actress | Working Girl
Melanie Griffith was born on August 9, 1957 in New York City, to then model/future actress Tippi Hedren and former child actor turned advertising executive Peter Griffith. Her parents' marriage ended when she was four years old and Tippi brought Melanie to Los Angeles to get a new start. Tippi ...
28. Harvey Keitel
Actor | Reservoir Dogs
American actor and producer Harvey Keitel was born on May 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Miriam (Klein) and Harry Keitel. An Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee, he has appeared in films such as Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976), Ridley Scott's The Duellists (...
29. Jane Levy
Actress | Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
Jane Levy was born in California, USA. Jane attended Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California. While in school, she was on the hip hop dancing team and was captain of the soccer team. During that time, she also appeared in Community Theater productions of Annie and The Wizard of Oz....
30. Rafael Morais
Actor | Mal Viver
Rafael Morais was born in Portugal. He is an actor and director, known for Bad Living (2023), Living Bad (2023) and Turn of the Tide (2023).
31. Martin Sheen
Actor | The Departed
Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is striking.
Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerard Estevez in Dayton, Ohio, to Mary-Ann (Phelan), an Irish ...
32. Kate Mulgrew
Actress | Star Trek: Voyager
Katherine Kiernan Mulgrew, or Kate Mulgrew, was born on April 29, 1955. She grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, the second oldest child (and oldest girl) in a large Irish Catholic family. When Kate expressed an interest in acting as a child, her mother, Joan, encouraged her to audition for local theater ...
33. Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Actress | Death Proof
Sydney Tamiia Poitier (born November 15, 1973) is a Bahamian-American television and film actress.
Born in Los Angeles, Poitier is the daughter of Bahamian actor Sir Sidney Poitier and Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus. Her mother is of Lithuanian Jewish and Irish descent. She has an older sister, ...
34. Sydney Pollack
Director | Tootsie
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist...
35. Anthony Quinn
Actor | Alexis Zorbas
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, ...
36. Darrell M. Smith
Actor | One More Chance
Darrell M Smith is an American Actor. Smith made his professional debut with The Potomac Theatre Company in off-Broadway plays. Smith's first film role was in " High's and Lows" in which he also was one of the executive producers. Smith then made TV appearances on "The King Of Queens" and "JAG." ...
37. Elaine Stritch
Actress | 30 Rock
A brash, sharp-tongued, incorrigible actress/singer who led a six decade career that contained many highs and lows, veteran Elaine Stritch's raucous six-decade career certainly lived up well to the Stephen Sondheim song lyrics "I'm Still Here." A popular, magnetic performer, she stole so many ...
38. Mario Van Peebles
Actor | How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass
Mario Van Peebles is a highly regarded director, actor, producer and writer. His directorial skills can be seen in the retelling of the epic mini-series "Roots" starring Forest Whitaker and Matthew Goode. Van Peebles has directed award-winning shows such as the recent hit "Empire" and "The Last ...
39. Tommy Wiseau
Writer | The Room
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a ...
40. Henry Winkler
Actor | The Waterboy
Henry Franklin Winkler was born on October 30, 1945, in Manhattan, New York. His parents, Ilse Anna Maria (Hadra) and Harry Irving Winkler, were German Jewish immigrants who escaped the Holocaust by moving to the US in 1939. His father was the president of an international lumber company while his ...
41. Bianca Lawson
Actress | Save the Last Dance
Bianca Lawson was born on March 20, 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Save the Last Dance (2001), The Feast of All Saints (2001) and Rogue (2013).
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