Mishkin Studio · Public domain

Trained at the Moscow Art Theatre under Stanislavski, Nazimova brought a psychologically intense, modern acting style to Broadway and then to silent film, becoming one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses and using that leverage to found her own production company — an unusual degree of creative control for any actress of the 1910s and 1920s. Her self-produced films, including Salomé and A Doll's House, were avant-garde and commercially unsuccessful on release but are now regarded as ahead of their time for their design and their frank engagement with feminist and queer themes; Nazimova herself was openly bisexual within Hollywood's private circles.