One of America's most influential acting teachers, and one of few Americans to have studied the "Method" with its originator, Constantin Stanislavsky; Adler's former students include Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty and Harvey Keitel.Adler began her career with the theater company of her father, the legendary Yiddish actor Jacob Adler, before appearing on Broadway and later joining the Group Theater at its inception in 1931. Her most famous performance was in the Group Theater's production of Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing" in the 1930s. By the mid-40s, after a schism with Lee Strasberg over his interpretation of the Stanislavsky method, she turned to teaching, first at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research in New York and, in 1949, full-time at her own school.
Profession(s):
Actor, acting teacher, director
Sometimes Credited As:
Stella Ardler
Family
brother:Jay Adler (born on September 26, 1896; died in September 1978)
brother:Luther Adler (born on May 4, 1903; died in December 1984; formerly married to Sylvia Sydney)
daughter:Ellen Adler (father, Horace Eleaschreff)
father:Jacob P Adler (born in 1855; died in 1962; legendary Yiddish actor)
husband:Harold Clurman (married on September 27, 1942; divorced)
husband:Horace Eleaschreff (divorced)
husband:Mitchell Wilson (died February 26, 1973)
mother:Sarah Adler
1967 Played Madame Arkadina in the Yale School of Drama's production of "The Three Sisters"
1961 Returned to stage after 15-year absence in "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad" in London
1949 Founded the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting (formerly the Stella Adler Theatre Studio) in NYC
1938 Directorial debut, "Golden Boy" with the Group Theater in San Francisco
1938 Film debut, "Love on Toast"
1935 Gave her most famous stage performance in The Group Theater's production of Clifford Odets's "Awake and Sing"
1920 First English-language Broadway play, Karel Capek's "The World We Live In"
1919 London stage debut, "Elisha Ben Avi"
1906 Stage debut in "Broken Hearts" at the Grand Theatre, NYC
1906 - 1918 Appeared with father's Yiddish repertory theater company in plays by Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jacob Gordon as well as other classical and modern plays performed in Yiddish including "The Merchant of Veni
Played one season of vaudeville on the Orpheum Circuit in the early 1920s
Appeared in over one hundred parts with the Living Place Theatre, the Yiddish Art Theatre opposite Maurice Schwartz and Samuel Golendenberg
Joined the Group Theater at its foundation by Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford
Named head of the acting department under Erwin Piscator at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research
Appointed adjunct professor of acting, Yale University
Named head of the undergraduate department of drama at NYU