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Nina Foch, actress and influential coach and teacher, dies at 84
The Hollywood veteran, who first attracted attention in
noir films of the 1940s, went on to become a respected teacher of directors at
USC and the American Film Institute.
noir films of the 1940s, went on to become a respected teacher of directors at
USC and the American Film Institute.
By Elaine Woo
10:38 AM PST,
December 6, 2008
Nina Foch, a veteran actress from Hollywood's film noir
era of the 1940s who became a widely respected acting coach and teacher of
directors, died Friday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was
84.
The cause was complications of long-term myelodysplasia, a blood
disorder, according to her son, Dr. Dirk De Brito.
Foch became ill
Thursday while teaching "Directing the Actor," a popular course at USC's School
of Cinematic Arts, where she taught for 40 years. She also offered the class for
years at the American Film Institute.
Her students have included a number
of accomplished directors, including Randal Kleiser, Amy Heckerling, Ed Zwick
and Marshall Herskovitz.
"She was one of those few teachers who was truly
life-changing," said Herskovitz, who with his partner, Zwick, created and
produced the critically acclaimed television shows "thirtysomething," "My
So-Called Life" and "Once and Again."
"She had a point of view that was
so profound and so provocative that it forced you to really reassess not just
your thoughts about filmmaking but your whole approach to life and
relationships."
Herskovitz, who met Zwick in Foch's class at AFI in the
1970s, said her philosophy was difficult to boil down because it stemmed from
her insights into how people behave and think and what they believe. "She had a
wonderful phrase that used to torment us -- "idiosyncratic contrapuntal
juxtaposition," he recalled Friday. "What it meant was what happens in life is
often the opposite of what you think would happen, so the way you play a scene
is often the opposite of the way you would think. . . . I'm not exaggerating
when I say that what she taught us comes up literally weekly in our careers. She
so influenced us in our way of looking at material, directing, even
writing."
Foch began her career as an actress whose most memorable work
was in the B-movie classic "My Name Is Julia Ross" (1945), directed by Joseph H.
Lewis. Foch played a young woman who takes a job as secretary for a wealthy
family and becomes ensnared in a plot to cover up a murder.
Her standout
acting inspired a recent UCLA Film & Television Archive series celebrating
Columbia's "noir girls" of the '40s. In addition to "Julia Ross," the series
featured such films as Fritz Lang's "Human Desire" and Rudolph Mate's "The Dark
Past," which starred Foch opposite William Holden and Lee J. Cobb.
"She's
really the reason we did these films," Andrea Alsberg, who curated the UCLA
series, told The Times in October. "Nina is this tall, cool drink of water.
She's not a dame, like Gloria Grahame. She's got class. 'Julia Ross' is a great,
Hitchcockian thriller. And it's Nina that brings it alive. It's only 65 minutes,
but you want to look at her the whole time."
Foch was born Nina Consuelo
Maud Fock on April 20, 1924, in Leyden, Netherlands. Her father was the renowned
Dutch composer-conductor Dirk Fock; her mother was actress Consuelo Flowerton.
They divorced when Foch was a toddler.
She later moved to New York with
her mother and enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She also
studied Method acting with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler.
She changed
her last name to Foch when her movie career began in 1941 at Warner Bros. She
eventually worked under contract at several major studios, including Columbia,
MGM, Universal, 20th Century Fox and United Artists.
Her film credits
include "A Song to Remember" (1945), "An American in Paris" (1951),
"Scaramouche" (1952) and "The Ten Commandments" (1956). She earned an Oscar
nomination for best supporting actress in "Executive Suite" (1954).
Foch
appeared on Broadway, including the 1947 hit "John Loves Mary." She briefly
tried directing, serving as assistant director to George Stevens on "The Diary
of Anne Frank" (1959), but turned to television acting when it became clear to
her that the time was not ripe for a female director.
Her lengthy
television credits include "Prescription: Murder" (1968), which launched the
popular "Columbo" detective series starring Peter Falk, the miniseries "War and
Remembrance" (1989) and episodes of "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," "The Mod Squad,"
"Dharma & Greg" and "NCIS." She earned an Emmy nomination for best
supporting actress in a drama series in 1980 for her work on an episode of "Lou
Grant."
Foch ran her own actors studio in Hollywood for many years and
taught two classes a week at USC, where her course was a requirement for a
masters in fine arts.
"Nina taught our students one of the most difficult
skills in the cinematic arts: how to turn the words on the page into compelling
performances," Elizabeth M. Daley, dean of USC's School of Cinematic Arts, said
in a statement Friday. "She inspired and influenced generations of USC women and
men, who in turn went on to shape direction of both cinema and
television."
"Believe it or not, teaching is the most rewarding thing I
do," Foch told United Press International in 1994. "It has been the most
successful thing I've done in my life."
Thrice married and divorced, she
is survived by three grandchildren, in addition to her son.
Services are
pending.
Woo is a Times staff writer.
elaine.woo@latimes.com
