Actress and acting teacher Stella Adler, who trained such Hollywood greats as Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, died in her sleep Monday of heart failure. She was 91.
Miss Adler died at home about 5 a.m., said Irene Gilbert, director of the Stella Adler Conservatory in Hollywood. Miss Adler hadn't been ill and she was participating in the conservatory, which also has a branch in New York, up to her death."She's just been letting go," Gilbert said. Funeral arrangements were being planned in New York.
The daughter of an acting family, Adler first appeared on stage at age 4.
She became prominent in the 1930s as a member of the Group Theater, an experimental theater company, appearing in such productions as "The House of Connelly," "Big Night" and Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing."