At the peak of her film career, in her early 40s; she's already been a legend on Broadway for quite some time -- and when she came to America from Russia in 1905, in a play called The Chosen People that spoke out against the pogroms on Russian Jews, she didn't yet speak a word of English. By 1907, she was a full-fledged lesbian and a bonafide star!

Alla Nazimova (aka Miriam Leventon)