Nikolai Cherkasov | |
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Cherkasov in Alexander Nevsky, 1938
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Born |
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
27 July 1903
Died | 14 September 1966 Leningrad, Soviet Union |
(aged 63)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1918–1965 |
Nikolay Konstantinovich Cherkasov (Russian: Никола́й Константи́нович Черка́сов; 27 July [O.S. 14 July] 1903 – 14 September 1966) was a Soviet actor and a People's Artist of the Soviet Union.
He was born in Saint Petersburg (later Petrograd and Leningrad; it reverted to Saint Petersburg some years after his death). From 1919 he was a mime artist in Petrograd's Maryinsky Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre, and elsewhere. After graduating from the Institute of Stage Arts in 1926, he began acting in the Young Spectator's Theatre in Leningrad.
Cherkasov was one of Stalin's favorite actors and played title roles in Sergei Eisenstein's monumental sound films Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Parts I & II of Ivan the Terrible (1945 & 1946; though Part II was not officially released until 1958 for political reasons). He also played Jacques Paganel in the memorable 1936 adaptation of Jules Verne's The Children of Captain Grant. In the 1947 comedy Springtime Cherkasov appeared alongside other icons of Stalinist cinema, Lyubov Orlova and Faina Ranevskaya. For the role of Alexander Popov in the film Alexander Popov in 1951 he received a Stalin Prize of the second degree. In 1957 Cherkasov portrayed Don Quixote in director Grigori Kozintsev's screen adaptation of that novel.