Elaine Aiken

Actress and drama teacher, born Elena Arizmendi in Córdoba, Spain. Arrived with her parents in the U.S. during the Spanish Civil War. In 1951, as Elaine Aiken, she became a protege of legendary method acting coach Lee Strasberg and three years later joined the Actor's Studio. Though she initially appeared in support of Jack Palance and Anthony Perkins in Paramount's The Lonely Man (1957), her subsequent acting career proved desultory. However, she became a respected acting teacher at the Strasberg Theater Institute in her own right (1977-84) and was co-founder (with Lily Lodge) and director of the Manhattan-based Actors Conservatory in 1987. She has notably worked with name actors, including Harvey Keitel, Shelley Winters and Alec Baldwin.