Nikolay Cherkasov

Nikolai Cherkasov
Born	July 27, 1903(1903-07-27) St Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	September 14, 1966(1966-09-14) (aged 63) Leningrad, Soviet Union
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.

Career

He was born in Saint Petersburg (later Leningrad; it reverted to Saint Petersburg 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.

In 1941, Cherkasov was awarded the Stalin Prize; in 1947, he was named a People's Artist of the Soviet Union. He wrote his memoirs, "Notes of a Soviet Actor" in 1951. He died in Leningrad in 1966 and was buried in the Cemetery of Masters at that city's Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1936	Girl Friends	White army Officer
1938	Friends	Beta the Ossesian
1938	Alexander Nevsky	Alexander Nevsky
1939	Lenin in 1918	Maxim Gorky
1944	Ivan the Terrible	Ivan the Terrible
1947	Pirogov
1949	Alexander Popov	Alexander Popov
1957	Don Quixote	Don Quixote

External links

• Nikolay Cherkasov at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Cherkasov, Nikolay
Alternative names
Short description	Soviet actor
Date of birth	July 27, 1903
Place of birth	St Petersburg, Russian Empire
Date of death	September 11, 1966
Place of death	Leningrad, Soviet Union