Maria Ouspenskaya (1876-1949) was a Russian-born, naturalized American actress and acting teacher. A student of Konstantin Stanislavski at the Moscow Art Theatre, she emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the influential American Laboratory Theatre in New York, contributing to the spread of the Stanislavski system. After moving to Hollywood, she established herself as a highly regarded character actress, specializing in roles of elderly, wise, or exotic women. She received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress: the first for her film debut in *Dodsworth* (1936) and the second for *Love Affair* (1939). Her image became iconic thanks to her role as the Gypsy fortune teller Maleva in the horror classic *The Wolf Man* (1941), a character she reprised in *Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man* (1943). Her other significant performances include *Waterloo Bridge* (1940) and *The Rains Came* (1939), solidifying her reputation as one of the most memorable supporting actresses of her era.