Biography

Anna Sten

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Overview

Born
December 3, 1908 · Kyiv, Kyiv Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kyiv, Ukraine]
Died
November 12, 1993 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (cardiac arrest)

Mini bio

Born in Russian Empire to a Ukrainian father and a Swedish mother, Anna Sten studied at the Russian Film Academy and joined the Moscow Art Theater. Strikingly beautiful, she went on to appear in a number of Russian silent films, but it was in the German film Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931) that Anna gained notice. Samuel Goldwyn saw a picture of Anna in the paper and rushed to view the film. After the first reel he sent word to sign her, hoping to develop her into a star of the magnitude of Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich. His agent signed Anna to a contract but forgot to mention the fact that she didn't speak a word of English, which made her appearance in sound pictures questionable. She spent a year studying English every day and working out makeup and acting. Goldwyn publicity called her "The Passionate Peasant" and sold her image to papers all over America. However, her first American picture, Nana (1934), even though almost completely rewritten and re-shot from the original, didn't bring audiences into the theaters. While Anna was looked great, the script and picture were average. Her second film, We Live Again (1934), marginally better suited to her style, also died within weeks at the box office. After her third film for Goldwyn, The Wedding Night (1935), also flopped, she and Goldwyn parted company after it became known around Hollywood as "Goldwyn's Last Sten." Anna made a few more movies, but by the end of the decade she was forgotten.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

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Trivia

Is mentioned in Cole Porter's song "Anything Goes." "When Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction // Instruct Anna Sten in diction // Then Anna Shows // Anything Goes".
Sten was such a flop as a star for Samuel Goldwyn Productions, that the producer's stockholders referred to her as "Anna Stench.".
She went to Germany in 1930 where she was able to work for few years.
Producer Samuel Goldwyn became aware of the expressive actress and engaged her to come to the United States to follow in the steps of Greta Garbo. After two years of intensive training, both in learning English and acting à la Hollywood, her first American movie was Nana (1934), but it was not a success.
Anna Sten appeared in American and English movies. To these productions belong "Three Russian Girls" (1944), "Runaway Daughters" (1956) and "The Nun and the Sergeant" (1962).