Mira Rostova

Mira Rostova (April 10, 1909 – January 28, 2009) was an American actress turned acting teacher, best known for her own variation of method acting that she used in coaching of Montgomery Clift. Her other acting students included Armand Assante, Alec Baldwin, Peter Gallagher, Jessica Lange, Zohra Lampert, Jerry Orbach and Madonna (who attended approximately half a dozen class sessions, working on scenes from Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke and Isherwood's I Am a Camera).

Rostova was born on April 10, 1909 with the surname Rosovskaya in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She fled to Switzerland after the Russian Revolution and then Hamburg, Germany, where she began acting. She also acted in Vienna. She moved to France after the rise of the Nazi party, and made it to the United States by way of England. In the U.S., she abbreviated her surname to Rostova.

Rostova had been taken in on a scholarship by Robert Lewis. She was cast as a fake witch doctor in Mexican Mural, an experimental play directed by Lewis, when she first met Clift, who also appeared in the play. Gradually, Rostova would play an increasing role in his acting career, discussing for hours the roles he should accept and the way he should act in these roles. Patricia Bosworth, Clift's biographer, described how Rostova had been hired on the payroll as Clift's coach while he was starring in films including A Place in the Sun and The Heiress.

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