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Born Mariam Edez Adelaida Leventon, into a Jewish family in Yalta in the Crimea which at the time was a part of Russia but today is an autonomous region of Ukraine. She grew up in a very dysfunctional family and was shuffled between foster homes and relatives. Her emotional distress caused her to rebel against authority as a way to gain attention but nonetheless, she was a talented child who was playing the violin by age seven. As a teenager she began to pursue an interest in the theatre and took acting lessons before joining a theater company in Moscow.

Under the stage name, Alla Nazimova, her career blossomed and she married a fellow actor but it did not last long. She toured Europe as well the United States where her first Broadway performances in 1906 drew critical acclaim. Deciding to make the USA her home, she worked on stage until she made her silent film debut in 1916. Over the next few years she made a number of highly successful films that earned her a considerable amount of money. She became widely gossiped about for the outlandish and allegedly debauched parties in her large mansion on Sunset Boulevard known as the Garden of AllahAlternate meaning: Garden of Allah (cabaret The Garden of Allah was a famous apartment building in West Hollywood, California, on Sunset Boulevard between Crescent Heights and Havenhurst, at the east end of the Sunset Strip. Although built in a Moroccan s. Her studio squelched the stories surfacing about her bisexualIn human sexuality, bisexuality describes people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females. In botany, a bisexual flower is one that possesses both male (pollen-producing) and female (seed-producing) parts. Botanists call th lifestyle and to cover it up, for more than a dozen years she lived in a partnership of mutual convenience with the homosexual actor Charles Bryant. A friend of Edith Luckett and her husband, Dr. Loyal Davis, Nazimova was made godmother to their daughter, former first lady Nancy Davis-ReaganNancy Davis Reagan (born July 6, 1921 (or, according to herself, 1923)) is the widow of President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was an actress prior to her marriage. She was born Anne Frances Robbins in New Y.

In 1918, at age 39, Nazimova felt confident enough in her abilities that she began producing and writing films in which she also starred. Daring for the times, in her adaptations of works by such notable playwrightA playwright is an author of plays for performance in the theater. The earliest playwrights with surviving works are a group of playwrights from Greece during the 5th century BC, notably Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. The term dramatiss as Oscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde ( October 16, 1854— November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer. One of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day, h or Henrik IbsenHenrik Johan Ibsen ( March 20, 1828 May 23, 1906) was an extremely influential Norwegian playwright who was largely responsible for the rise of the modern realistic drama. His plays were considered scandalous in much of society at the time, when Victorian she instituted her own ideas for filmmaking. However, her creativity did not meet consumer tastes and the films lost a great deal of money. By 1925 she no longer could afford to invest in more films and financial backers withdrew their support. With little choice, she gave up on the film industry, returning to perform on Broadway until the early 1940s when she appeared in a few more films, ostensibly in need of money.

Alla Nazimova died in 1945 in Los Angeles and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park CemeteryForest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California is the original Forest Lawn. see also Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery) Forest Lawn was founded in 1917 by Dr. Hubert Eaton on the grounds of a 1913 cemetery. Eaton was a firm believer in a jo in Glendale, California.

Her contribution to the film industry has been recognized through a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.