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The dreams of an aspiring actress who moved to New York City in 1973 “took a sharp detour” after she was allegedly raped multiple times by the chief executive of a celebrated acting school, a lawsuit filed on Tuesday claims.
The woman, identified in the complaint only as a Jane Doe for fear of “embarrassment and further psychological damage,” identifies her alleged rapist as Mitchell Nestor, then the artistic director of the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.
Nestor, a high-ranking faculty member who the lawsuit says controlled Doe’s “education, studies and her future as an actress,” went to her apartment in early 1974 “under the pretense of giving her private instruction.” Once there, however, he then allegedly raped and tried to sodomize Doe.