Vivian Nathan

Vivian Nathan, born Vivian Firko on October 26, 1916 in Manhattan (now part of New York City), emerged from a Polish‑American family that settled in the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth before she entered the world of performance. She attended Holy Cross Parochial School and later the St. Nicholas school on the Lower East Side, experiences that grounded her in the multicultural fabric of early 20th‑century New York and later informed the depth of her character work. In 1944 a chance audition with producer John Golden caught the eye of the Broadway community, and by 1948 she made her Broadway debut under the legendary director Elia Kazan in the Actors Studio production of Bessie Breuer’s Sundown Beach. Shortly thereafter she adopted the stage surname “Nathan” after her husband Nathan Schwalb, a change that coincided with her appearance in the 1949 production of Montserrat. As a founding member of the Actors Studio in 1947, Nathan not only performed but also taught, mentoring future stars such as Kim Stanley and serving on the Studio’s board of directors until 1999 alongside icons like Paul Newman and Al Pacino. Her theatrical résumé includes the original Broadway openings of Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo (1951) and Camino Real (1953), a Clarence Derwent Award for her role as the Charwoman in Anastasia (1955), and later collaborations with Anne Bancroft in Golda (1977). Transitioning to the screen, Nathan debuted in the 1958 comedy Teacher’s Pet and delivered a memorable performance as Jane Fonda’s psychiatrist in the crime thriller Klute (1971). Television work saw her appear in Studio One, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and three episodes of Playhouse 90. After a long and varied career, she spent her final years at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, passing away on April 3, 2015 at age 98, leaving a legacy of dedication to craft and education.