Russ.-Ukr.-Germ.-Amer.(-Swed.) actress

[Steven Hill]

Dear colleagues:

My questions are contained in the last 3 paragraphs below.

Once upon a time, a world-famous movie star was known as Anna Sten.  Records seem
to indicate she was born in Kiev in 1908 or 1909 (?), and indisputably she passed away
in New York on Nov. 12, 1993.  She became a "star" in the USSR in the last half of the
1920s ("Girl with the Hatbox," etc.), moved to Germany in 1929, and was lured to
Hollywood by a million-dollar contract in 1933.   For about a decade she was a major
celebrity in Hollywood, then  faded into obscurity.   With Nazimova, Brynner (Yul, not
Cyril),  Baryshnikov, and arguably also Smirnoff (Yakov), Tamiroff, and Ratoff, Sten  was
about the biggest  "Russian" (read Ukrainian or Jewish or Azerbaijanian or just plain
Russian) name ever to grace the screens of Hollywood.  The snows of yesteryear...

But historians are perplexed by considerable confusion around the actual facts of the
biography of "Anna Sten," not least  her real name.  In recent years attempts
have been made to straighten out this confusion, including one  by Italo Manzi (1999,
posted on "WWW").  I myself have begun a modest attempt in this direction.

The biggest obstacle to clarification, which should never have existed, is that some
nameless historian years ago  jumped to a totally wrong conclusion, that "Anna Sten"
was "Anel' Sudakevich."  Believe it or not.   Minor actress Anel' Sudakevich  lived from
1906 to 2002, a Moscovite all her life. Both Sten and Sudakevich were attractive
young movie starlets in the USSR, c. 1926-29, and they even appeared in two
Russian films together.  ("Zemlia v plenu" and "Torgovtsy slavoi" -- which helps to prove
they were different individuals.)

But Sten left the USSR in 1929, never to return, while Sudakevich spent her entire
career in the USSR & post-USSR.   To make historical matters worse, after the nameless
culprit initially confused Sten with Sudakevich, big US data-bases like "US.IMDM.COM"
and "WWW.ALLMOVIE.COM" dutifully (re)wrote their data  to merge together some or all
of  the acting credits of Sten and Sudakevich, as the credits of one actress.  "IMDB"
went on to justify this merging with the statement that Anna Sten's real name had been
"Anel' Sudakevich" --  an argument ex post facto worthy of the old USSR.

And for us a first-class mess, which I am now trying to straighten out.  Not easy, let me
tell you, trying to deal  with a computer like "HAL." But progress is slowly being made.
I've even received personal replies from actual named individuals at both "IMDB" and
"AllMovie," very courteous, thoughtful, and conscientious people, who do want to get the
facts straight in their data bases.  That's encouraging, and I hope in time those two data
bases can be consulted confidently,  without  the   dangerous confusion  that has
existed heretofore.   (Look at how many hundreds or  thousands of other sites on
"WWW" quote from, or link to, "IMDB" -- including all IMDB's mistakes...)

My principal interest at the moment -- about which some knowledgeable readers of
"SEELANGS" might have information to contribute? -- concerns the real name of "Anna
Sten."  If it was not "Anel' Sudakevich," then what was it?  And where did the "Sten"
come from?

My collation of various sources  suggests that when this actress was born in Kiev, her
father was a Ukrainian choreographer named Petro Fesak (probable but not yet
confirmed). In any event,  not a Swedish sea captain or God knows what.  And her
mother  supposedly was a Swedish lady (name unspecified.)   And that the actress's
born name was either Anna (or Hanna)  Petrovna  Fesak.  After a youthful romance with
actor-director Leonid L. Obolenskii, Anna  eventually married Russian-German-American
film producer Eugen Frenke ( "born Russia, 1907" [ ? ] ), so Anna's legal name in the
USA was Mrs Eugene Frenke.

But as history teaches, performers often change their names, and often use their
mother's name in some way.  (Cf. Mrs Bogart, nee Betty Jane  Persky, who became
Lauren "Bacall" -- the surname allegedly from her mother's E. European maiden name,
bokal ["tumbler"].)   Hence, if "Anna Petrovna Fesak (Mrs. Eugene Frenke)" used the
pseudonym  "Anna Sten" for her acting career,  one wonders -- was the "Sten" from her
mother's Swedish maiden name, and if so, was that maiden name merely "Sten,"  or
"Steen," or  "Stensson, " or something similar?

With thanks for any input on the original names, or anything else,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois (USA).
__ __ _ __ _ __ _ __ __ __





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