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- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Sergei Polunin was born on 20 November 1989 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor and director, known for Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Red Sparrow (2018) and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Sergei Bondarchuk was one of the most important Russian filmmakers, best known for directing an Academy Award-winning film epic War and Peace (1965), based on the book by Lev Tolstoy, in which he also starred as Pierre Bezukhov.
He was born Sergei Fedorovich Bondarchuk on September, 25, 1920, in the village of Belozerka, Kherson province, Ukraine, Russian Federation (now Belozerka, Ukraine). He was brought up in Southern Ukraine, then in Azov and Taganrog, Southern Russia. Young Bondarchuk was fond of theatre and books by such authors as Anton Chekhov and Lev Tolstoy. He made his stage debut in 1937, on the stage of the Chekhov Drama Theatre in the city of Taganrog, then studied acting at Rostov Theatrical School. In 1942 his studies were interrupted by the Nazi invasion during WWII. Bondarchuk was recruited in the Red Army and served for four years until he was discharged in 1946. From 1946 - 1948 he attended the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (VGIK), graduating as an actor from the class of Sergey Gerasimov. In 1948 he made his film debut in Povest o nastoyashchem cheloveke (1948) then co-starred in The Young Guard (1948).
For his portrayal of the title character in Taras Shevchenko (1951) he was awarded the State Stalin's Prize of the USSR, and was designated People's Artist of the USSR, becoming the youngest actor ever to receive such honor. Then he starred in the internationally renowned adaptation of the Shakespeare's Othello (1956), in the title role opposite Irina Skobtseva as Desdemona. Bondarchuk expressed his own experience as a soldier of WWII when he starred in The Destiny of a Man (1959), a war drama based on the eponymous story by Mikhail Sholokhov, which was also Bondarchuk's directorial debut that earned him the prestigious Lenin's Prize of the USSR in 1960.
Bondarchuk shot to international fame with War and Peace (1965), a powerful adaptation of the eponymous masterpiece by Lev Tolstoy. The 7-hour-long film epic won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and brought Bondarchuk a reputation of one of the finest directors of his generation. The most expensive project in film history, War and Peace (1965) was produced over seven years, from 1961 to 1968, at an estimated cost of $100,000,000 (over $800,000,000 adjusted for inflation in 2010). The film set several records, such as involving over three hundred professional actors from several countries and also tens of thousands extras from the Red Army in filming of the 3rd two-hour-long episode about the historic Battle of Borodino against the Napoleon's invasion, making it the largest battle scene ever filmed. Bondarchuk also made history by introducing several remote-controlled cameras that were moving on 300 meter long wires above the scene of the battlefield. Having earned international acclaim for War and Peace (1965), he starred in the epic The Battle of Neretva (1969) with fellow Russian, Yul Brynner, and Orson Welles, whom he would direct the following year.
By the late 1960s Bondarchuk was one of the most awarded actor and director in the Soviet Union. However, he was still not a member of the Soviet Communist Party, a fact that brought attention from the Soviet leadership under Leonid Brezhnev. Soon Bondarchuk received an official recommendation to join the Soviet Communist Party, an offer that nobody in the Soviet Union could refuse without risking a career. At that time he was humorously comparing his situation with the historic Hollywood trials of filmmakers during the 50s. Bondarchuk was able to avoid the Communist Party in his earlier career, but things changed in the Soviet Union under Brezhnev, so in 1970, he accepted the trade-off and joined the Soviet Communist Party for the sake of protecting his film career. In 1971 he was elected Chairman of the Union of Filmmakers, a semi-government post in the Soviet system of politically controlled culture. Eventually he evolved into a politically controlled figure and turned to making such politically charged films as Red Bells (1982) and other such films. Later, during the liberalization of the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, Bondarchuk was seen as a symbol of conservatism in Soviet cinema, so in 1986 he was voted out of the office.
Bondarchuk was the first Russian director to make a big budget international co-production with the financial backing of Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis, such as Waterloo (1970), a Russian-Italian co-production vividly reconstructing the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. This was his first English-language production, but several Soviet actors were cast, e.g. Sergo Zakariadze and Oleg Vidov. In this film, Orson Welles, his co-star in The Battle of Neretva (1969) made a cameo as the old King Louis XVII of France. But this time Bondarchuk was unable to control the advances of Rod Steiger, and the film was a commercial flop in Europe and America, albeit it gained the favor of critics.
After his dismissal from the office of Chairman of the Union of Cinematographers he started filming Tikhiy Don (2006) based on the eponymous novel by the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Sholokhov, with Rupert Everett as the lead. At the end of filming, just before post-production, Bondarchuk learned about some unfavorable details in his contract, causing a bitter dispute with the producers over the rights to the film and bringing much pain to the last two years of his life. Amidst this legal battle the production was stopped and the film was stored in a bank vault, and remained unedited and undubbed for nearly fourteen years. The production was completed by Russian television company "First Channel", and aired in November 2006.
In his career that spanned over five decades, Sergei Bondarchuk had credits as actor, director, writer, and co-producer in a wide range of films. He suffered a heart attack and died on October 20, 1994, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, next to such Russian luminaries as Anton Chekhov and Mikhail A. Bulgakov. His death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Bondarchuk was survived by his second wife, actress Irina Skobtseva and their children, actress Alyona Bondarchuk, and actor/director Fedor Bondarchuk, and actress Natalya Bondarchuk, his daughter with his first wife, actress Inna Makarova.
As a tribute to Sergei Bondarchuk, his son, Fedor Bondarchuk called him "a father and my teacher," and dedicated his directorial debut, 9th Company (2005), set in war-torn Afghanistan, whereas Sergei's directorial debut was set in WWII.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Leon Belasco was born on 11 October 1902 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Philo Vance Returns (1947), Nothing But the Truth (1941) and The Hidden City (1950). He was married to Laureine Back (dancer). He died on 1 June 1988 in Orange, California, USA.- Maurice Moscovitch was born on 23 November 1871 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for The Great Dictator (1940), Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) and Love Affair (1939). He died on 18 June 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Jerry Austin was born on 20 July 1892 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Saratoga Trunk (1945), Adventures of Don Juan (1948) and Life of St. Paul Series (1949). He died on 15 October 1976 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nikolay Grinko was born on 22 May 1920 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Solaris (1972), Stalker (1979) and Andrei Rublev (1966). He died on 10 April 1989 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].- Writer
- Producer
Sy Bartlett was born on 10 July 1900 in Nikolayev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Mykolaiv, Ukraine]. He was a writer and producer, known for Cape Fear (1962), The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939) and 13 Rue Madeleine (1947). He was married to Carol Weber, Patricia Owens, Ellen Drew and Alice White. He died on 29 May 1978 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Sergey Garmash was born on 1 September 1958 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor and writer, known for 12 (2007), Hipsters (2008) and The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment (1999).- Andy Albin was born on 25 December 1907 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963), Gable and Lombard (1976) and Mean Dog Blues (1978). He was married to Dolores Albin. He died on 27 December 1994 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Mark Donskoy was born on 6 March 1901 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Gorky 1: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938), Foma Gordeev (1959) and The Taras Family (1945). He died on 21 March 1981 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Ida Kaminska was born on 4 September 1899 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for The Shop on Main Street (1965), Tkies khaf (1924) and On a heym (1939). She was married to Marian Melman and Zygmunt Turkow. She died on 21 May 1980 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Nicholas Perry known online as Nikocado Avocado was born on May 19, 1992, in Kherson, Ukraine, to Ukrainian parents, he was later adopted to American parents and moved to Philadelphia where he grew up. He is a classically trained violinist, and graduated at Lower Dauphin High School. He is an Internet Celebrity known for his mukbang eating shows on YouTube. He started his channel in May 2014, where he uploaded his vegan lifestyle with his Colombian husband Orlin and him playing the violin videos, then he started getting into making mukbang videos since he was interested in it, they were healthy eating videos soon, he would take a wrong turn when he quit being vegan in 2016 because of health reasons, he started making theses mukbang videos were he would eat a lot of junk food on camera that of course wasn't vegan food. Later in May of 2017 he would go to Heart Attack Grill and realize that he was 205lbs. After that he would still make a ton of mukbang videos of him eating a lot of junk food almost daily and he would make these videos were he would celebrate his heavyweight. Occasionally in his videos he would fight with Orlin on camera, destroy his food like a toddler, and have mental breakdowns. His content now has become very messed up for the past 4 years because of him wanting to stay relevant. Fans have been shocked the fact a once healthy, nice and skinny youtuber has taken the wrong turn ever since he started mukbanging.- Communist leader. He was chief theorist, a leader in both the 1905 and 1917 Russian Revolutions alongside Vladimir Lenin. As commissar for foreign affairs, Trotsky arranged the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. He next became head of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, which resulted in the deaths of over a million White Army soldiers and Cossacks, upon orders from Vladimir Lenin. He had Russian peasants and workers forcibly conscripted into the Red Army, but he proved to be a poor military leader and the Russian invasion of Poland in the 1920s was repulsed by Polish forces under Marshal Józef Pilsudski, with very heavy Russian losses. Trotsky and his arch-rival Joseph Stalin struggled for power after Lenin's death in 1924. Stalin eventually stripped Trotsky of his influence by 1929, and expelled him from Russia in 1936. Trotsky spent the rest of his life in exile, living in the home of Mexican communist artist Diego Rivera in Mexico. There he was writing and preaching revolution, until he was assassinated by Spanish communist Ramon Mercader, an assassin sent to kill Trotsky by Stalin, in 1940.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Frances Chaney was born on 23 July 1915 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Law & Order (1990) and Life with Mikey (1993). She was married to Ring Lardner Jr. and David Ellis Lardner. She died on 23 November 2004 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Nicholas Brodszky was born on 20 April 1905 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for Money Talks (1997), Sleepers (1996) and Heavenly Creatures (1994). He died on 24 December 1958 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Leanna Bartlett was born on 10 September 1985 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. She is an actress, known for The Other Woman (2014) and The Real Geezers of Beverly Hills-Adjacent (2019).
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Mel Tolkin was born on 3 April 1913 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a writer and producer, known for All in the Family (1971), Joe's World (1979) and The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967). He was married to Edith Leibovitch. He died on 26 November 2007 in Century City, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The son of a cantor, Rasumny made his stage debut at 14 and toured Europe and South America with the Moscow Art Theatre. Rasumny settled in the U.S. in 1935 and took jobs as a bill collector and dishwasher between acting jobs. His first film appearance was in 1940's Comrade X (1940). He spent the remainder of his career playing several ethnic roles.- Best remembered as Valentino's mother in "Blood and Sand," Rosanova began her career on Broadway and later played several immigrant women on the screen. In the film "Lucky Boy" (1929), George Jessell sang 'My Mother's Eyes' to her just like Al Jolson sang to Eugenie Besserer in "The Jazz Singer." With the advent of sound, her career came to an end.
- Actress
- Writer
Anna Lisyanskaya was born on 1 November 1917 in Nikolayev, Kherson Governorate, Russia [now Mykolaiv, Ukraine]. She was an actress and writer, known for Dvenadtsataya noch (1955), Lenin in Poland (1966) and Dostoyanie respubliki (1972). She died on 2 December 1999 in Arad, Israel.- Additional Crew
Larisa Latynina is a former gymnast, representing Soviet Union.
Latynina, aged only 21, made her Olympic debut at Melbourne Games in 1956. In the all-around event, she fought off stiff competition to win gold. She finished first in the vault in the apparatus finals, second in the uneven bars and in the exercise on the floor, and fourth in the balancing beam. She also led the Soviet Union in Team Event to victory.
Latynina was the favorite for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In the all-around event she led the Soviet Union to take the first four places, thereby securing a win in the team competition by a margin of nine points. Latynina defended her floor title, took silver medals in the balance beam and uneven bars events, and bronze in the vault competition.
At the 1964 Summer Olympics, Latynina added two more gold medals to her tally, winning the team event and the floor event both for the third time in a row. A silver medal and two bronzes in the other apparatus events brought her total of Olympic medals to eighteen: nine gold medals, five silver and four bronze. She won a medal in every event in which she competed, except for the 1956 balance beam where she came in fourth.
Latynina is the only woman to have won nine Olympic gold medals. She is the only female athlete who at some point has held the record for most Olympic gold medals. Additionally, within the sport of gymnastics, she is the only woman who has won an all-around medal in more than two Olympiads, the only woman who has won an individual event (floor exercise) in more than two Olympiads, and one of only three women who have won every individual event at either the World Championship or Olympic level. She is the only female gymnast to have twice won team gold, all-around gold and an event final gold at the same Olympics, having done so in 1956 and four years later, in 1960.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Phil Spitalny was born on 7 November 1890 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Cinderella Man (2005), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1942) and Here Come the Co-eds (1945). He was married to Evelyn Kaye Klein. He died on 11 October 1970 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.- Alexander Sizonenko was born on 20 July 1959 in Zaporozh'ye, Kherson Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Zaporizhia, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Sedem jednou ranou (1991). He died on 5 January 2012 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
- Inna Shevchenko was born on 23 June 1990 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR.
- Helena Makowska was born on 2 March 1893 in Krivoy Rog, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for Hamlet (1917), The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and Der Schuß im Pavillon (1925). She was married to Botteril, Julian Makowski and Karl Falckenberg. She died on 22 August 1964 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Cinematographer
- Producer
- Director
Roman Bondarchuk was born on 14 January 1982 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. Roman is a cinematographer and producer, known for Volcano (2018), Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015) and Evromaidan. Chornovy montazh (2014).- Louis 'Red' Deutsch was born on 16 September 1895 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire. Louis 'Red' was a writer, known for Red (1993). Louis 'Red' died on 11 September 1985 in Broward, Florida, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ilya Trauberg was born on 3 December 1905 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for God 19-yy (1938), Dlya vas naydyotsya rabota (1932) and Chastnyy sluchay (1934). He died on 18 December 1948 in Berlin, Germany.- Director
- Art Director
- Cinematographer
Roman Karmen was born on 29 November 1906 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a director and art director, known for Grenada, Grenada, Grenada moya (1967), Nuremberg Trials (1946) and One Day in Soviet Russia (1941). He died on 28 April 1978 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Leonid Zakharovich Trauberg is Soviet film director and screenwriter. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1987). Leonid Trauberg was born in Odessa. After moving to Petrograd, the family settled in house number 7, apt. 4, along Kolomenskaya street.
In December 1921, together with Grigoriy Kozintsev and G. Kryzhitskiy, he wrote the "Eccentric Theater Manifesto," which was proclaimed at a debate organized by them. In 1922, Kozintsev and Trauberg organized the Theater Workshop "Factory of an Eccentric Actor", and in the same year they put in it an eccentric reworking of "Marriage" by Nikolay Gogol. For two years, they staged 3 more plays based on their own plays, and in 1924 they transferred their experiments in the field of eccentric comedy to cinema, transforming the theater workshop into the FEKS Film Workshop.
The first full-length film by Kozintsev and Trauberg - the romantic melodrama Chyortovo koleso (1926) according to the script of Adrian Piotrovsky - was already a mature work. Love for a bright eccentric was combined with a convincing display of urban life. This film has a permanent creative team; in addition to the directors, it included cameraman Andrey Moskvin and artist Yevgeni Yenej, who worked with Kozintsev in almost all of his films.
In 1926-1932, Leonid Trauberg taught at the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts, in 1926-1927 he was the head of the film department of the Leningrad Theater Institute. In 1961-1965 he taught at the VKSR under the Goskino USSR.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Ilya Ilf was born Ilya Arnoldovich Fayzilberg on October 15, 1897, in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Odesa, Ukraine). His father, named Arnold Fayzilberg, was a clerk at a bank. In 1913, he graduated from a Technical School. He worked as a clerk, a telephone technician, and had various industrial jobs in Odessa. After the Russian Revolution, he became an accountant and statistician, then joined a satirical magazine 'Sindetikon' and became a journalist. He published his first poems under a female pseudonym.
In 1923, Ilf moved to Moscow and became staff journalist for the 'Gudok'newspaper. There he met such writers, as Mikhail A. Bulgakov and Yuriy Olesha among others. In 1925, he met Yevgeni Petrov, and a year later, they started writing together. Their first novel titled 'Dvenadtsat Stulev' (Twelve Chairs) was published in 1928. Its main character, named Ostap Bender, became a popular synonym for a charming and smooth criminal. The book had instant success with the general public but was bashed by the Soviet critics because it satirized the loss of civility and described degradation of cultural values in the Soviet Union. The book was praised by such writers as Vladimir Mayakovsky and later by Vladimir Nabokov. Their second novel by Ilf and Petrov was 'Zolotoi Telenok' (Golden Calf), published in 1931, in a magazine, then in 1933, as a book. Both novels became best sellers in the Soviet Union. Several film and TV adaptations were made in the Soviet Union by such directors as Leonid Gaidai and Mark Zakharov, among others. In 1970, an American adaptation was made by director Mel Brooks starring Frank Langella as Ostap Bender. The character Ostap Bender was portrayed by such renown Russian actors as Sergey Yurskiy, Archil Gomiashvili, Andrey Mironov, and Oleg Menshikov.
During 1933-1934, Ilf and Petrov traveled across Europe. In 1935, they made a journey by car about the United States, which gave them material for a popular book 'Odnoetazhnaya Amerika' (The One-Story America 1937). Ilya Ilf died of tuberculosis on April 13, 1937. His partner, Yevgeni Petrov, died in a plane crash on July 2, 1942, on a flight from Sevastopol to Moscow.
In 1948, Andrei Zhdanov attacked many Soviet intellectuals and banned the books of Ilf and Petrov among others. The Communist Party ordered their books banned and removed from all public libraries across the Soviet Union. Eight years later, the ban was lifted during the political "Thaw" initiated by Nikita Khrushchev in 1956.- Jacob Adler, the legendary "Great Eagle"' ("adler" is the German word for "eagle") of the Yiddish theater, was one of the great American stage actors, ranking with Edwin Booth, John Barrymore and Marlon Brando. Adler also is famous as the patriarch of an acting dynasty that stretched over 100 years from the late 19th century to the 21st and was essential to the evolution of the American theater from melodrama to a new heights of realism and seriousness. Adler's life story not only elucidates the Golden Age of the Yiddish theater but is a testament to the survival of a culture in a world where many elements threatened to extirpate it.
Adler was born in Odessa in Imperal Russia on February 12, 1855 and was stricken with the theatrical bug as a teenager. He joined a Yiddish theatrical company, the Rosenberg Troupe, in the 1870s. The Rosenberg Troupe was one of three Yiddish theatrical companies in Russia, the other two being Goldfaden's Troupe and Sheikevitch's Troupe. During his theatrical apprenticeship with Rosenberg, Jacob Adler proved himself to be an outstanding actor and a superb dancer but a bust as a balladeer. His poor singing thus cut off the lucrative operetta field for him. He compensated by becoming a great actor.
Adler gained experience as a member of the Rosenberg Troupe, touring Imperial Russia and putting on shows in Yiddish speaking communities. His first wife, Sonia Oberlander, was a member of the troupe. Adler was mentored by the eponymous head of the Troupe.
Jacob Adler became famous in the Polish and Russian Yiddish communities by playing the title role in Karl Gutzkow's drama, "Uriel de Acosta". Acosta (1585-1640) was a marrano (a Christianized Jew of medieval Spain) who fought for enlightenment in the Jewish community of Holland, which was under Spanish suzerainty. The play was hugely popular, but the popularity of the Yiddish theater and its tackling of serious, didactic fare rather than melodramas and musicals beloved by the masses made it suspect as a subversive influence.
The "modern" Yiddish theater can be seen as evolving out of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) rather than from the religious Purimspiel. The unenlightened and viciously anti-semitic Russian oligarchy launched a series of pogroms in the 1880's that almost wiped out Jewish culture in Russia. Jews started emigrating from Russia en masse, with whole villages sometimes uprooting and leaving for more hospitable climes such as North America. Jewish culture was dealt a further blow when Czar Alexander III issued a ukase banning the Yiddish theater. Jacob Adler had no choice but to leave Russia; he emigrated to England at the end of November 1883.
Adler caught on as an actor with 'Dramatic Clubs'. In London, the Odessa-born Adler had a hit with the play "The Odessa Beggar." He had an even bigger hit in Schiller's "The Robber," which brought him international fame. However, after six years in England, Adler decided to emigrate to the United States of America, moving to the great melting pot that was New York City. In his memoirs (written in Yiddish), Adler recalled that "...when I came to America in 1889, I was already known by the proud name 'Nesher Hagadol' ('The Great Eagle') and was an actor famous throughout the Yiddish theatrical world."
In the Big Town, The Great Eagle starred in various Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue in the Bowery, the "Jewish Broadway." There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in the New York Metropolitan Area in the Gay Nineties, and many spoke Yiddish as their first or only language. The theater was their major entertainment form in an era in which there was no radio, let alone television. It was not unusual for an impoverished Jewish family to spend half of its week's wages wrestled from laboring in Lower East Side sweatshops at a night at the theater. Adler was successful enough to be able to open his own theater in the Bowery, the Union Theater on Broadway and Eighth Street. (He also later opened the National in the same area.)
Adler focused on producing dramatic plays as he was not successful in operettas and had a didactic bent. He wanted the theater to be socially significant rather than remain just a vehicle for vulgar entertainment like the melodramas beloved by the Jewish denizens of the Lower East Side. Adler linked up with playwright Jacob Gordin and revolutionized the Yiddish Theater, and, a generation later, American theater as a whole.
Gordin wrote "Sibina", "The Wild Man", and "The Yiddish King Lear", Adler's greatest triumph. First assaying the role in November 1891, King Lear brought Adler even greater fame and solidified his reputation a great actor. Sara Heine Adler, his second wife, said of the night he first took the stage as Lear: "He was not an actor that night, but a force."
The great success of Ader in Gordin's Lear represented the incorporation of the world classical canon into the American (and international) Yiddish theater. It also meant that "better" or more high-brow theater targeting the Yiddish-speaking Jewish audience could thrive. It had been an axiom that the 'Shund' tradition of Jewish Broadway, a focus on sensational melodrama, was the vehicle for success as it attracted the Jewish masses. The undisputed champion of the 'Shund' tradition was Boris Thomashefsky, who had mocked "The Great Eagle" as he had been more financially successful with his cheap melodramas than Adler was with his more prestigious theatrical offerings.
However, with King Lear, Adler had not only an artistic triumph but a great financial success. Jacob Adler had made the "Jewish Broadway" safe for "better theater." A similar process would happen in the 1930s and 1940s when the Group Theatre, a company that included two of his children and which had roots in the quality Yiddish theater Adler had pioneered, would revolutionize the Great White Way of Old Broadway itself with a socially conscious "better theater". Jacob's daughter Stella Adler, the Yiddish- and Group Theatre-affiliated actress who became a premier acting coach in the US, said about her father's success with The Yiddish King Lear that "The whole profession caught fire. Good theater apparently could 'make it'... Every actor wanted to play Gordin. Every actor wanted to play the classics, and the people came."
Adler achieved even greater success when, in 1903, he trod the boards on Broadway as Shylock in a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." He had another supreme triumph, humanizing a character that until then had been a one-dimensional, stereotypical villain, nearly always played by a gentile in a red fright wig.
In 1910, Adler made his first and only feature film for the Selig movie studio, "Michael Strogoff" an adaptation of Jules Verne's adventure story directed by J. Searle Dawley. The movie was one of the first full-length adaptations of a Verne work. "Michael Strogoff" was a first rate production with lavish production values, which were unusual for a movie from the Selig studio, but which bears testimony to the fame and respect Adler engendered. The film was notable for its climax, which entailed the burning of a Siberian city.
Adler' wrote his memoirs in Yiddish, which were published in the Yiddish-language socialist newspaper 'Die Varheit' ('The Truth') from 1916-19. Adler fell ill in 1922, and though he recovered, his illness had aged him and sapped his powers. When he returned to front his theater before the adoring crowds, putting back on the grease-paint to play in Gordin's drama "The Stranger", he was a success, but had clearly lost the stamina necessary for the stage. He died on April 1, 1926 in New York City, aged 81.
His second wife Sara Heine Adler, herself a great actress who regaled a young Marlon Brando with tales of her late husband and his acting philosophy that had a great influence on the tyro thespian, died in 1953. They had brought into being an acting dynasty, most notable in the successes of their son, Luther, and their daughter, Stella. Stella's grandson David Oppenheim is an actor who runs the influential acting school she founded.
Jacob Adler's legacy was to effect the transformation of the Yiddish Theater into quality theater. His son Luther and daughter Stella, as members of the Group Theatre, an organization with roots firmly planted in the Yiddish theater, helped do the same to Broadway in the 1930s. He also helped influence a new generation of actors who came to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably Paul Muni, who started in the Yiddish theater, which largely died out even before the Holocaust due to assimilation, the decline of Yiddish as a living language among American Jews, and the competition posed by radio and movies as a new form of cheap entertainment.
The nearly 70-year-old Adler, in the last chapter of his memoirs, explained the significance of the Yiddish theater and its enduring legacy: "Only dipped in blood and lit with tears of a living witness can the world understand how, with our blood, with our nerves, with the tears of our sleepless nights, we built the theater that stands today as a testament to our people." - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Evgeniy Matveev was born on 8 March 1922 in Novoukrainka, Ukrainian SSR [now Kherson Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor and director, known for Lyubov zemnaya (1975), Beshenye dengi (1982) and Klan (1991). He died on 1 June 2003 in Moscow, Russia.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Georgiy Deliev was born on 1 January 1960 in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. He is an actor and director, known for Maski Show (1991), Odesskiy podkidysh (2017) and Zwölf Stühle (2004).- Hedda Nova was born in 1890 in Odessa, Russia by the Black Sea. She was a silent film actress for 17 years with the "Universal Film Studios Company". She did not transfer to talking films most probably because of her thick Russian accent.
- Production Designer
- Costume Designer
- Art Director
Georges Wakhévitch was born on 18 August 1907 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a production designer and costume designer, known for La tragédie de Carmen (1983), Personal Column (1939) and Louise (1939). He died on 11 February 1984 in Paris, France.- Rita Gould was born on 8 August 1890 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for Girls' Dormitory (1936), He Couldn't Say No (1938) and The Big Combo (1955). She died on 15 March 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Songwriter ("Beer Barrel Polka", "Sonny Boy", "The Thrill is Gone"), composer, author, publisher and producer, he came to the USA in 1898 and was educated at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York. In 1925, he joined Buddy DeSylva and Ray Henderson as a songwriting team and music publishers. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "George White's Scandals" (1925, 1926, 1928 and 1931), "Manhattan Mary", "Good News", "Hold Everything", "Three Cheers" and "Follow Through", and was also co-librettist for "Flying High", "Hot-Cha", "Strike Me Pink" and "Yokel Boy" (also producer-director). In 1929 he sold the publishing firm and went to Hollywood under contract to Fox. Joining ASCAP in 1921, his other musical collaborators included Albert Von Tilzer, Con Conrad, Moe Jaffe, Sidney Clare, Harry Warren, Cliff Friend, Harry Akst, Jay Gorney, Louis Alter, Harold Arlen, Sammy Fain, Sammy Stept, and Charles Tobias. His other song compositions include "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl", "Oh, by Jingo!", "I Used to Love You but It's All Over Now", "Dapper Dan", "Wait Until You See My Madeline", "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain", "Last Night on the Back Porch", "Shine", "Don't Bring Lulu", "Then I'll Be Happy", "Collegiate", "Lucky Day", "Birth of the Blues", "Black Bottom", "It All Depends on You", "Manhattan Mary", "The Best Things in Life Are Free", "Good News", "The Varsity Drag", "Just Imagine", "Lucky in Love", "Broken Hearted", "Just a Memory", "So Blue", "I'm on the Crest of a Wave", "You're the Cream in My Coffee", "Button Up Your Overcoat", "You Wouldn't Fool Me", "My Lucky Star", "Together", "My Sin", "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?", "Sunny Side Up", If I Had a Talking Picture of You", "Little Pal", "Without Love", "Thank Your Father", "Red Hot Chicago", "You Try Somebody Else", "My Song", "The Thrill is Gone", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "This Is the Missus", "Strike Me Pink", "I've Got to Pass Your House", "Baby, Take a Bow", "If Love Makes Me Give Up Steak and Potatoes", "The Lady Dances", "Love Is Never Out of Season", "That Old Feeling", "Down Home Rag", "Comes Love", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree With Anyone Else but Me", I Came Here to Talk for Joe", "I Dug a Ditch in Wichita", "The Beer that I Left on the Bar", "Oh, Ma-Ma", and Madam, I Love Your Crepe Suzette".- Fania Marinoff was born on 20 March 1890 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. She was an actress, known for Life's Whirlpool (1916), One of Our Girls (1914) and New York (1916). She was married to Carl Van Vechten. She died on 17 November 1971 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
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- Actor
Vyacheslav Viskovsky was born in 1881 in Odessa, Odessa uyezd, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Odessa Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for Khabu (1928), Kak oni lgut (1917) and Minaret Smerti (1924). He died in 1933 in Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia].- Director
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Vladimir Braun was born on 1 January 1896 in Yelizavetgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kirovohrad, Ukraine]. He was a director and writer, known for V mirnye dni (1951), Malwa (1957) and Blestyashchaya karyera (1933). He died on 21 August 1957 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].- Writer
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Anna Akhmatova was arguably the greatest Russian woman poet.
She was born Anna Andreevna Gorenko on June 23, 1889, in Bolshoi Fontan, a suburb of Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire. Her father, Andrei Antonovich Gorenko, was a Navy Engineer. Her mother, Inna Erazmovna (nee Stogova), belonged to Russian Nobility. From 1890-1905 her father served in St. Petersburg at the Headquarters of the Imperial Trade Fleet and Ports under Grand Prince Aleksander Mikhailovich. The family lived in Tsarskoe Selo, the elite Royal suburb of St. Petersburg. Young Anna Akhmatova received an excellent private education and attended the Tsarskoselky Gymnasium for Ladies. After the divorce of her parents in 1905, she lived in Kiev for 4 years. There she graduated from the Fundukleevsky Gymnazium in 1907, and attended the Law school of Kiev University for 2 years. Back in St. Petersburg she studied at the St. Petersburg Classes for women (Zhenskie Kursy) from 1911-1913.
Akhmatova started writing poetry from age 11, and signed her first publication with her real name, Anna Gorenko. Her father objected that she used his name, because he also was a writer, and even met Fyodor Dostoevsky and corresponded with Anton Chekhov. Then Anna made up a pseudonym 'Akhmatova' and invented a poetic myth of her connection to the Tatar Khan Akhmat; her pseudonym was a product of her creative imagination. In 1910, in Kiev she married Nikolai Gumilev, whom she knew for five years. Gumilev was an important Russian poet and critic, the founder of the literary movement of Acmeism. The young couple spent a honeymoon in Paris. There she met with then little known artist Amedeo Modigliani. She made a second trip to Paris in 1911 and to Italy in 1912, and continued her friendship with Modigliani, who made fifteen portraits of her, some of them nude. Inspired by love, Akhmatova wrote her first book of poetry "Evening" (Vecher, 1912). At the same time Akhmatova met Vladimir Mayakovsky at the St. Petersburg literary club 'Brodyachaya Sobaka' (Stray Dog). Her son Lev Gumilev was born in October of 1912. Her next books "Rosary" (Chyotki, 1914) and "The White Flock" (Belaya Staya, 1917) brought her literary fame. Her poetry was highly praised by Yuri Tynyanov and Boris Pasternak.
Terror came in her life with the Russian revolution of 1917. Communists killed leading intellectuals by thousands. Akhmatova's separated husband Nikolai Gumilev was executed in 1921 on the charges of "anti-Soviet plot". After publishing her books "Plantain" (Podorozhnik, 1921) and "Anno Domini MCMXXI (1922) she was ostracized as "bourgeous". She witnessed the brutal arrest of poet Osip Mandelstam, who criticized Joseph Stalin and later was killed in a Siberian prison-camp. Publication of her works has been banned from 1925 to 1953. One modest collection of her poetry was published in Leningrad in 1940, but was banned the same year and confiscated from all Soviet libraries and book stores. In spite of her own suffering, Akhmatova supported a young struggling writer Olga Berggolts. At the beginning of the Nazi siege of Leningrad Akhmatova was starving and helpless. She was evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she lived with the family of Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. In the middle of WWII her poem 'Courage' was published in Pravda.
Akhmatova's husband Nikolai Punin was a chief curator of the Hermitage and a prominent art historian and writer. He was arrested in 1935, after his criticism of ugly life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Punin criticized the loss of civilized values and tasteless portraits of the Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin, thousands of which flooded the renamed city of Leningrad. Akhmatova had to burn all of her husband's documents and photographs in order to protect his life. Then she was assisted by her friends Mikhail A. Bulgakov and Boris Pasternak in writing a petition to Joseph Stalin, and her husband was released. The second time Akhmatova tried to save Punin from under arrest was in 1949. At that time, Punin lectured that Cezanne and Van Gogh were great artists, and he described the portrait of Vladimir Lenin, as "a bootleg, not a painting"; for such anti-communist statement he was arrested and exiled to the Gulag prison-camp. He died in a Vorkuta prison-camp in 1953. This time Akhmatova was powerless, because she was under KGB surveillance.
After the end of the Second World War Akhmatova was interviewed in Leningrad by Sir Isaiah Berlin, who came for a visit from London in the fall of 1945. In August of 1946 Akhmatova was attacked by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, because Joseph Stalin pushed repressions against intellectuals (writers, musicians, doctors). Akhmatova was labeled "alien to the Soviet people" for her "eroticism, mysticism, and political impartiality." She was censored along with Boris Pasternak, Mikhail Zoschenko, Sergei Prokofiev, and other leading intellectuals. The official ban was imposed on all publications and public performances of Akhmatova, and she was deprived of livelihood until the death of Joseph Stalin.
After her expulsion from the Union of Writers in 1946, Akhmatova was left penniless. At that time she was threatened by the Soviet authorities and moved from Leningrad to Moscow with the family of Viktor Ardov. Ardov, Chukovsky, and Fadeev later helped reinstate her membership in the Union of Writers. Boris Pasternak gave a special reading of the unpublished version of his novel 'Doctor Zhivago' for Akhmatova. In 1955 she received a small dacha-cabin in Komarovo, a suburb of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). There she was living and writing in the summertime, working on her major works: 'Poema bez geroya' and 'Requiem'. But her masterpiece 'Requiem' was not published until 1987. 'Requiem' is a monumental poem about survival of the people through the 'Great Terror' and dictatorship of Stalin.
Her only son Lev Gumilev (1912 - 1992) was a historian and philosopher, who survived several arrests and spent many years in the Soviet Gulag prison-camps. Akhmatova and her circle in the 50's and 60's Leningrad was an unofficial incubator for talented youth, such as her apprentice Joseph Brodsky. In 1962, Akhmatova was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 1964 she was awarded the Etna-Taormina Prize for poetry. Akhmatova also received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University (1965).
Anna Akhmatova died on March 5, 1966, in Domodedovo, a suburb of Moscow. Akhmatova's burial service was held at the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral in St. Petersburg, she was laid to rest in the Komarovo cemetery, near St. Petersburg, Russia.- George Sorel was born on 24 March 1901 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Navy Secrets (1939), Swiss Miss (1938) and Espionage (1937). He died on 19 January 1948 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Kateryna Bursikova was born on 12 January 1999 in Kherson, Ukraine. She is an actress, known for Cold Blood (2019), The Hit (2018) and The Window (2019).
- Dmitri Franko was born on 25 October 1913 in Voznesenskoye, Odessa Oblast, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Krutoe pole (1979), Utro vechera mudreneye (1981) and Osvobozhdenie: Ognennaya duga (1970). He died on 4 November 1982 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine].
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Monia Liter was born on 27 January 1906 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a composer and actor, known for El-Lailah el-Akhirah (1963), Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956) and It Happened in Paris (1935). He died on 5 October 1988 in London, England, UK.- Leonid Leonidov was born on 3 June 1873 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for The Wings of a Serf (1926), V gorod vkhodit' nelzya (1929) and Seeds of Freedom (1928). He died on 6 August 1941 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
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David Victor was born on 22 August 1910 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a producer and writer, known for Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), Gunsmoke (1955) and The Spy in the Green Hat (1967). He died on 18 October 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Edmund Morris was born on 22 September 1912 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a writer, known for Channing (1963), Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1956) and Rocky King, Detective (1950). He died on 6 January 1998 in Seattle, Washington, USA.
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- Sound Department
Max Terr was born on 16 November 1889 in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for The Gold Rush (1925), Fatal Lady (1936) and Sing, You Sinners (1938). He died on 2 August 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.