Olga Knipper

Olga Knipper
Born	Olga Leonardovna Knipper 21 September [O.S. 9 September] 1868 Glazov, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	22 March 1959 (aged 90) Moscow, Soviet Union
Spouse(s)	Anton Chekhov (1901-1904)

Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (Russian: Ольга Леонардовна Книппер-Чехова; 21 September [O.S. 9 September] 1868 – 22 March 1959) was a Russian Empire and Soviet stage actress. She was married to Anton Chekhov.

Knipper was among the 44 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Constantin Stanislavski in 1898. She played Arkadina in The Seagull (1898), played Elena in the Moscow premiere of Uncle Vanya (1899), and was the first to play Masha in Three Sisters (1901) and Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard (1904). Knipper married Anton Chekhov, the author of these plays, in 1901. Knipper-Chekhova played Ranevskaya again in 1943, when the theatre marked the 300th performance of The Cherry Orchard. The German actress Olga Chekhova was her niece and the Soviet composer Lev Knipper was her nephew.

Olga Leonardovna Knipper was born on the 21 September [O.S. 9 September] 1868 in Glazov to Leonard and Anna Knipper. Though both of her parents were of German origin, her father wasted no time in claiming Russia as their family heritage. Around the time of Olga's birth, her father, Leonard, was in charge of a factory in a small town north-east of European Russia called Glazov. Two years after Olga was born, her family moved to Moscow, where they became accustomed to an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Growing up in between her two brothers, Konstantin and Vladimir, Olga was pampered extensively. She attended a private school for girls, was fluent in French, German, and English, and took music and singing lessons after rigorous schooling days. Olga showed considerable promise as a painter and was her own accompanist on the piano when she entertained friends and family at dinner parties. Her father, however, who was anxious to conform to the social conventions of his adopted country, made it very clear at an early age that Olga's aspirations in life should be confined to marrying well and becoming a house-wife. Her mother, Anna Ivanovna, though very talented as a singer and pianist, was also forced to give up any hopes of pursuing a professional career in the arts and felt that Olga had to do the same.

...
Wikipedia