Anna Sten

Anna Sten (; born Anna Petrivna Fesak, December 3, 1908November 12, 1993) was a Ukrainian-born American actress. She began her career in stage plays and films in the Soviet Union, then traveled to Germany, where she starred in several films. Her performances were noticed by film producer Samuel Goldwyn, who brought her to the United States with the aim of creating a screen personality to rival Greta Garbo. After a few unsuccessful films, Goldwyn released her from her contract. She continued to act occasionally until her final film appearance in 1962. Early life and education Sten was born December 3, 1908 in Kyiv, then part of the Russian Empire. There are other conflicting dates of birth: 1910 and 1906 from self-written dates in application forms from college. Her mother, Alexandra, listed Anna's birthdate as October 29, 1906 upon her arrival in the United States, but some of the discrepancies may be owing from the switch from the Julian calendar (still used in the Russian Empire up to 1918) to the Gregorian calendar. According to the official biography, her father was born into a Cossack family, and he worked as a theater artist and producer. Her mother, Swedish by birth, was a ballerina. In Kiev in the middle of the 1920s, she married entertainer and variety actor Boris Sten and took his stage name as her own. In most foreign sources her maiden names are Stenska and Sudakevich, or a combination thereof (such as a common variant Anel (Anyushka) Stenska-Sudakevich or Annel (Anjuschka) Stenskaja Sudakewitsch), which is why Sten has been mistakenly identified with the Russian actress Anel Sudakevich, who starred in Soviet cinema at the same time and with some of the same directors as Anna Sten. The actresses have been confused for one another. Sten received her education at Kyiv State Theatre College, worked as a reporter and simultaneously played in Kyiv Maly Theater, attended classes at the studio theater where she worked within the Stanislavsky System. In 1926, she successfully passed her exams in the first working Proletcult theater in Moscow.