Maria Ouspenskaya

Ouspenskaya died from a stroke several days after receiving severe burns in a house fire, which she had caused by falling asleep while smoking a cigarette.
See also:. Despite her two Academy Award nominations her later films were inferior productions such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and Tarzan and the Amazons (1945). Foujita said that with Kiki, they buried forever the glorious days of Montparnasse. Her other successes included The Rains Came (1939), Waterloo Bridge (1940), The Mortal Storm (1940), and Kings Row (1942). When she died, a huge crowd of artists and fans attended her funeral. She received a second nomination in 1939 for her role in Love Affair. Even during difficult times, she maintained her positive attitude saying, "All I need is an onion, a bit of bread, and a bottle of red (wine); and I will always find somebody to offer me that.".

Her first Hollywood role, in Dodsworth (1936) brought her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her drawings and paintings comprised portraits and dreamy landscapes composed in a light, slightly uneven expressionist style that was very much a reflection of her own easy-going manner and boundless optimism. Although she had appeared in a few Russian silent films many years earlier, Ouspenskaya had avoided making a career in film, until the financial hardship of her school forced her to consider the possibilities of film to help her build her finances. A capable painter in her own right, a sold-out exhibition of Kiki's own paintings was held in Paris' Galerie au Sacre du Printemps in 1927. One of Ouspenskaya's students at the school during this period was the then unknown teenager, Anne Baxter. She has a Daylily named after her: Kiki De Montparnasse. She performed regularly on Broadway over the next decade, and in 1929 she founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York. Long after her time, Kiki remains the embodiment of the outspokenness, audacity, and creativity that marked this period of Montparnasse.

The Moscow Art Theatre travelled widely throughout Europe and when it arrived in New York in 1922 she decided to remain. Finally, in 1996, her book was translated and published. A member of the Moscow Art Theatre, she was directed by Konstantin Stanislavski, and for the remainder of her life advocated and taught his method. Kiki's Memoirs remained barred in the United States as late as the 1970s when it was still held in the section for banned books in the New York Public Library. Born in Tula, Russia, Ouspenskaya studied singing in Warsaw and acting in Moscow and performed extensively in Russian theater. This book was published the following year in New York City by Black Manikin Press but it was banned by the United States government. Maria Ouspenskaya (July 29, 1876 - December 3, 1949) was a Russian born actress who achieved success as an stage actress as a young woman in Russia, and as an elderly woman in Hollywood films. Ernest Hemingway and Tsuguharu Foujita provided the introduction for her 1929 memoirs.

She was the mistress of Man Ray, and a friend of Chaim Soutine, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst and other artists. She also had a role in nine different motion pictures, including Fernand Leger's famous Ballet mécanique. The symbol of bohemian and creative Paris, at age 28 she was declared "Queen of Montparnasse." Her music hall performances, in black hose and garters, included crowd-pleasing raunchy songs, which somehow were both uninhibited yet inoffensive. Her partnership with Man Ray produced some of Surrealism's most significant images.

Alice Prin became one of the most famous artists' models ever, the most notable of which is a colection of photographs by Man Ray and the portrait of her painted by Moise Kisling titled Nu assis. At age 12 she was sent to Paris to be educated and by age 14 she was posing nude for sculptors. An illegitimate child, she was raised in abject poverty by her grandmother. Born in Chatillon-sur-Seine, Côte d'Or, Burgundy, France on October 2, 1901.

Kiki, was the stage name for Alice Ernestine Prin (1901 - 1953), a nightclub singer, actress, model, and painter. Kiki: Reine de la Montparnasse - Lou Mollgaard (In French - 1988). Kiki's Memoirs (translation by Samuel Putnam) - Kiki (1996).