In Search of . . . Leslie Browne

With Oscar night looming, a reminder that a nomination isn’t necessarily a stairway to screen stardom. . . .

Though she earned a supporting-actress nomination for her screen debut as the ingenue ballerina in 1977’s “The Turning Point,” Leslie Browne has appeared in only two movies since.

A principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Browne was a virtual unknown when she was plucked from the New York City Ballet and placed by director Herbert Ross (whose godchild she is) in the lofty company of Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft and Mikhail Baryshnikov (who played her lover). The film’s success catapulted her to a soloist position with ABT--and what seemed a promising acting career.

It was during the making of Ross’ “Nijinsky” (1980)--she had a non-dancing role--that Browne’s acting career was short-circuited by what she calls a personal “turning point”: a brush with death when her appendix burst.

“It changed me completely,” Browne says. “I became a completely different person because I didn’t expect to wake up (from the operation.) I lost my ambition for many years . . . I lost that drive because I was so happy just to be alive.”

She left ABT to recuperate, returning when Baryshnikov became artistic director in 1980. She left again to marry in 1983--divorcing in 1986--and once more in 1987, to appear in Ross’ “Dancers.”

Now 31, Browne hopes to resume acting after she hangs up her toe shoes, and says her advice for young dancers coming up is to follow their own instincts. “Instead of listening to other people telling you what to do, you should listen to yourself. I didn’t learn that ‘til late.”