Paula Strasberg (Miller)

Paula Miller Strasberg (1909 – April 29, 1966) was a former stage actress who became actor and teacher Lee Strasberg's second wife, mother of actors John and Susan Strasberg as well as Marilyn Monroe's acting coach and confidante.

Strasberg was born as Paula Miller in New York City in 1909 as per Find a Grave, although the exact date remains undisclosed. Her first Broadway credit, as Paula Miller, was in 1927 when she was 17 or 18 years old, appearing in The Cradle Song. She appeared in more than 20 more stage roles until Me and Molly in 1948.

She was blacklisted for her membership in the American Communist Party, although her husband was not and apparently suffered no adverse effects on his career. Paula Strasberg would go on to become Marilyn Monroe's acting coach and confidante until Monroe's death in 1962.

Her children John Strasberg and Susan Strasberg were also actors. Susan Strasberg described her mother as a "combination delicatessen, pharmacist, Jewish mother".[1]

[edit] Death

Strasberg died of cancer in 1966 and is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York