Michael Chekhov
| Michael Chekhov | |
|---|---|
Mikhail A. Chekhov, 1910s
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| Born |
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov 29 August 1891 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 30 September 1955 (aged 64) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Years active | 1921–1954 |
| Spouse(s) | Ksenya Karlovna Ziller (1918-1955) (his death) Olga Tschechowa (1914-1917) (divorced) 1 child |
Mikhail Aleksandrovich "Michael" Chekhov (Russian: Михаил Александрович Чехов, 29 August 1891 – 30 September 1955) was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, and Yul Brynner. Konstantin Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student. He was a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov.
Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination.
He was born in Saint Petersburg the son of Alexander Chekhov (the elder brother of Anton Chekhov) and his wife Natalya Golden. It was his father's second marriage his mother, a Russian Jew, having been the governess to his children from his first marriage. He was raised in a middle-class family his father being in the Imperial Customs Service as well as a moderately successful writer. Chekhov's first wife (1914–1917) was actress Olga Chekhova born Knipper, whom he met at the MAT First Studio. (She was named after her aunt, the wife of Anton Chekhov.) Their daughter, also baptized Olga, was born in 1916, she became a German actress under the name Ada Tschechowa. Olga Chekhova was a daughter of Konstantin Knipper and the niece and namesake of Olga Knipper, Anton Chekhov's wife. His second wife was Xenia Ziller, of German origins.
Chekhov was considered by the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski to be one of his brightest students. He studied under Stanislavski at the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, where he acted, directed, and studied Stanislavski's 'system'. When Chekhov experimented with affective memory and had a nervous breakdown, this aided Stanislavski in seeing the limitations of his early concepts of emotional memory. He later led the company whose studio he named Second Moscow Art Theatre.
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