Sophisticated Mama...

Nina Foch is a living legend. I had the privilege of taking her class about a year and a half ago at USC. Her class changed my life.

So today, Judy and I paid her a visit at USC, while she was teaching her famous "Directing the Actor" class. We were able to express our gratitude and revisit the genius she displays while teaching.

Honestly, she is an amazing communicator, fascinating actress, and an all around stand up woman.

For those that don't know the history of Nina Foch, I will happily supply :)

"Nina Foch (b. April 20, 1924 in Leiden, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born American actress and leading lady in many 1940s films. Her mother was an American actress who returned to the U.S. after her marriage collapsed.

Although Foch starred in that film, her movie fame was during the height of the 1940s in which she played cool, aloof and often foreign women of sophistication. She has been featured in over 80 feature films and hundreds of television shows, most notably as a regular in John Housman's "Playhouse 90" series. In 1952, Foch played the role of Marie Antoinette in Scaramouche.

Another noteworthy role for Foch came as Bithiah in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, in which she played the Pharaoh's daughter who found the baby Moses in the bullrushes and adopted him as her son. She was actually a year younger than Charlton Heston who played Moses. Foch was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in the 1954 film Executive Suite.

On television, she was cast in the first pilot Columbo movie, as well as Prescription: Murder, where she played a woman name Carol Flemming who was killed by her husband. More recently she appeared on Just Shoot Me, Bull and NCIS.

Nina Foch currently teaches "Directing the Actor" at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she has taught since the 1960s. She also works as an independent script-breakdown consultant for many prominent Hollywood directors.

She lives in Beverly Hills, California, as she has for forty years, and has one child, a son, Dr. Dirk de Brito.

Foch's first husband was James Lipton of Inside the Actor's Studio fame."

credit: wikipedia.com