Нина Фош: Американская актриса и педагог

American actress (1924–2008)

Nina Foch (/f//ɒ//ʃ/ FOSH; born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock; April 20, 1924 – December 5, 2008) was an American actress who later became an instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Foch established herself as a dramatic actress in the late 1940s, often playing cool, aloof sophisticates. Born in Leiden, Netherlands in 1924, Foch immigrated to the United States with her mother while still a toddler, and was raised in New York City. After signing a contract with Columbia Pictures at age 19, Foch became a regular in the studio's horror pictures and film noirs, starring in such films as The Return of the Vampire (1943), Escape in the Fog, and My Name Is Julia Ross (1945). She concurrently embarked on a stage career, making her Broadway debut as the titular Mary in 1947's John Loves Mary. She subsequently starred in several Broadway productions of William Shakespeare plays, including Twelfth Night (1949), King Lear (1950), and Measure for Measure (1955). Foch gained widespread notice for her role as Milo Roberts in the musical film An American in Paris (1951); Robert Wise's drama Executive Suite (1954), which earned her the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress; Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956); and Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960). In 1967, she made her theatrical directorial debut with a Broadway production of Ways and Means, a comedy by Noël Coward. Foch also worked extensively in television beginning in the 1950s, with notable roles including the victim in the first of Peter Falk's Columbo films in 1968, as well as guest starring parts in Checkmate (1961), Naked City (1962), The Wild Wild West (1969), The F. B. I. (1970), and Hawaii Five O (1973). In 1980, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her guest role on an episode of Lou Grant. Beginning in the 1960s, Foch began a concurrent career as an educator, teaching courses in drama and film directing at the American Film Institute and at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, where she was a faculty member for over 40 years. Among her students were directors Randal Kleiser and Edward Zwick. and performer Julie Andrews. Foch continued to teach until the end of her life, up until her death in December 2008 of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Nina Foch was born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock in 1924 in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands, to American actress and singer Consuelo Flowerton and Dutch classical music conductor Dirk Fock. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler, and she and her mother moved to the United States, settling in New York City. Throughout Foch's childhood, her mother encouraged her artistic talents; she learned piano and enjoyed art but was more interested in acting. After graduating from the Lincoln School, Foch attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, studying method acting under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. She subsequently starred in Stratford and Broadway productions of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1949) and King Lear (1950). Foch received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a secretary in the boardroom drama Executive Suite (1954), starring William Holden, Fredric March, and Barbara Stanwyck. The same year Executive Suite was released, Foch married her first husband, actor James Lipton; their marriage spanned five years before ending in divorce in 1959. The same year, she married television writer Dennis de Brito, with whom she gave birth to one son, Dirk. In Spartacus (1960), starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, she played a woman who chooses gladiators to fight to the death in the ring simply for her entertainment. In 1961, she guest starred in the NBC series about the family divisions from American Civil War entitled The Americans. In 1963, she appeared on the NBC game show Your First Impression. In 1964, she played the title role in the episode "Maggie, Queen of the Jungle" of Craig Stevens's short lived CBS drama series, Mr. Broadway. Also in 1964, Foch divorced her second husband, De Brito.

Later in her career, Foch appeared in War and Remembrance (1988) as the Comtesse de Chambrun, an American collaborationist in WWII Paris who employs Jane Seymour's character, Natalie Henry, as a librarian and suggests that the best place for her and her uncle would be the inaptly named "Paradise Ghetto". She also appeared as Frannie Halcyon in the TV miniseries Tales of the City (1993). The same year, Foch divorced her third husband, Michael Dewell. Foch was cremated by the Neptune Society of Sherman Oaks, California, and her ashes were placed in the custody of her son.

Foch has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard, and 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. Those who studied with her include Rod Stewart, Julie Andrews, John Ritter (with whom she co starred in Skin Deep), Amy Heckerling, Randal Kleiser, Edward Zwick, Ron Underwood, and Marshall Herskovitz. Andrews recalled of Foch: "She was a tough teacher, but in the best sense. She was always brutally frank, she demanded one go the extra mile, and she wouldn't allow one to get away with a thing."

Institution Category Year Nominated work Result Ref. (Reference(s)) Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress 1954 Executive Suite National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress 1954 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series 1980 Lou Grant Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize 1954 Executive Suite