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Nina Foch ( ; born Nina Consuelo Maud Fock; April 20, 1924 – December 5, 2008) was an American Actor who later became a drama instructor. Her career spanned 6 decades, consisting of over 50 feature films and over 100 television credits. She was the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and a National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Foch established herself as a dramatic actress in the late 1940s, often playing cool, aloof sophisticates.
Throughout Foch's childhood, her mother encouraged her artistic talents; she learned piano and enjoyed art but was more interested in acting. After graduating from the Lincoln School, Foch attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, studying method acting under Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler.
Next, Foch appeared in Johnny O'Clock (1947), The Dark Past (1948), The Undercover Man (1948), and Johnny Allegro (1949). During this time, she was also a regular in John Houseman's CBS Playhouse 90 television series.
Foch made her Broadway theatre debut in the 1947 production of John Loves Mary, playing the titular Mary. She subsequently starred in Stratford and Broadway productions of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1949) and King Lear (1950).
Foch received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a secretary in the boardroom drama Executive Suite (1954), starring William Holden, Fredric March, and Barbara Stanwyck. The same year Executive Suite was released, Foch married her first husband, actor James Lipton; their marriage spanned five years before ending in divorce in 1959. The same year, she married television writer Dennis de Brito, with whom she gave birth to one son, Dirk.
In Spartacus (1960), starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, she played a woman who chooses Gladiator to fight to the death in the ring simply for her entertainment. In 1961, she guest-starred in the NBC series about the family divisions from American Civil War entitled The Americans. In 1963, she appeared on the NBC game show Your First Impression. In 1964, she played the title role in the episode "Maggie, Queen of the Jungle" of Craig Stevens's short-lived CBS drama series, Mr. Broadway. Also in 1964, Foch divorced her second husband, De Brito. Foch was next cast as Eva Frazier in the Outer Limits episode "The Borderland". She appeared in an episode of Gunsmoke as the widowed matriarch of a lawless town, and played in an episode on Combat! titled episode "The Casket". In 1967, she made her theatrical directorial debut with a Broadway production of Ways and Means, a comedy by Noël Coward. Foch married her third husband, Michael Dewell, in 1967.
Foch also worked extensively in television beginning in the 1950s, guest-starring in Checkmate (1961), Naked City (1962), Route 66 (1964), The Wild Wild West (1969), The F.B.I. (1970), and Hawaii Five-O (1973).
She was subsequently cast as the first murder victim of the Columbo mystery series starring Peter Falk, appearing in the pilot movie, Prescription: Murder (1968), with Gene Barry as her husband, a homicidal psychiatrist. In the early 1970s, she guest-starred on ABC's That Girl in the fifth-season episode, That Script, and NBC's The Brian Keith Show. In 1975, she appeared in the film Mahogany, starring Diana Ross, and subsequently supporting roles in the horror film Jennifer and the Walt Disney supernatural television film Child of Glass (both released in 1978). In 1980, Foch was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her guest role as Mrs. Pope on the Lou Grant episode "Hollywood".
Also beginning in the 1960s, Foch began working as an instructor, teaching "Directing the Actor" classes at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC), as well as at the American Film Institute.
In her final years, Foch appeared on the television series Just Shoot Me, Bull, Dharma & Greg, and NCIS, the latter portraying Ducky Mallard's elderly mother. She also had minor roles in the independent drama film Pumpkin (2002), and the romantic comedy film How to Deal (2003).
Beginning in the 1960s, Foch began a concurrent career as an educator, teaching courses in drama and film directing at the American Film Institute and at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, where she was a faculty member for over 40 years. Among her students were directors Randal Kleiser and Edward Zwick and performer Julie Andrews. Foch continued to teach until the end of her life, up until her death in December 2008 of myelodysplastic syndrome.
Foch also worked as an independent script-breakdown consultant for many Hollywood directors.
Foch was reportedly the inspiration for the character Nina, a washed-up actress teaching acting classes from a seedy motel, in Rufus Butler Seder's film Screamplay. Seder had studied under Foch years earlier.Director's Commentary, Screamplay DVD
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