Born in Tula, Russia. The daughter of a lawyer, Ouspenskaya studied singing at the Warsaw Conservatory and acting at Adasheff's School of the Drama in Moscow. She received her practical training as an actress touring stock in the Russian provinces and then joined the Moscow Art Theatre. It was here that she first worked under the direction of the great Stanislavski, whose "Method" she would go on to promote for the remainder of her life. She came to America with the Art Theatre in 1922 and remained after they returned to Moscow to become a dominant Broadway actress for more than a decade. In 1929 she founded the School of Dramatic Art in New York. It was to help keep the school funded that she accepted her first Hollywod film, DODSWORTH, in 1936. (She had appeared in a few movies in Russia.) This began a lucrative association, for Ouspenskaya, Hollywood and the viewing public, that would last for more than a dozen years and two dozen films. Her other notable film credits include CONQUEST (1937), LOVE AFFAIR, THE RAINS CAME and JUDGE HARDY AND SON (all 1939), DR. EHRLICH'S MAGIC BULLET, WATERLOO BRIDGE, THE MORTAL STORM, THE MAN I MARRIED, DANCE, GIRL, DANCE and BEYOND TOMORROW (all 1940), THE WOLF MAN and THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (both 1941), KINGS ROW and MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (a.k.a. PHANTOM OF PARIS) (both 1942), FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943), TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS (1945), I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU (1946), WYOMING (1947) and A KISS IN THE DARK (1949). She died in Los Angeles of a stroke three days after a lighted cigarette set fire to her bed.    Nominated for Supporting Actress 1936: DODSWORTH    Nominated for Supporting Actress 1939: LOVE AFFAIR 2 nominations