Stella Adler Receives Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, 8/4

Melanie Griffith, Benecio Del Toro, Mark Ruffalo and others will be present as their mentor, acting icon Stella Adler, is honored with the city of Hollywood's greatest tribute-a star on the world famous Walk of Fame.  The event will take place at 6773 Hollywood Blvd. (between Highland and Las Palmas) on Friday, August 4th at 11:30 AM.

"A name synonymous with the profession of acting, her noted style became the cornerstone at the conservatory frequented by talents such as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Kim Basinger, Warren Beatty, Candice Bergen and more.  Combining what she learned from the Group Theatre, The Yiddish Theatre, Broadway, Hollywood, and Stanislavsky, she opened the Stella Adler Theater Studio (later renamed the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting). Her belief in the seriousness of her art kept many accomplished members of the theater coming back. Johnny Grant will introduce Irene Gilbert - (creator and Founding Director), Tom Oppenheim (Stella's Grandson and President and Artistic Director) and Ellen Adler (Daughter of the late great legend), who will unveil the star in front of the Stella Adler Studio," state press notes.

"From 1905, at the age of four, until her death eighty-seven years later, Stella Adler dedicated herself to understanding the theater. Her belief in the supreme seriousness of her art kept the many celebrated members of the theater and film community coming back for her intelligent and passionate advice.  It was Adler's sense that 'the theater exists 99% in the imagination' that informed her instruction. She proposed that one of the actor's primary concerns must be with the emotional origins of the script. A student's main responsibility was to search between the lines of the script for the important unsaid messages. This, she knew, took a combination of emotional availability and imagination. For her students she was both the toughest critic and the most profound inspiration, saying, 'You act with your soul. That's why you all want to be actors, because your souls are not used up by life.' To this day, more than a decade after her death, Adler is still viewed as one of the foremost influences on contemporary acting."

She also founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.  For more information, visit www.stellaadler.com.