Mikhail Zharov

Mikhail Zharov
Born	Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov October 15, 1899(1899-10-15) Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	December 15, 1981(1981-12-15) (aged 82) Moscow, USSR
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1915–1978

Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (Russian: Михаил Иванович Жаров; October 27, 1899 – December 15, 1981) was a Russian actor.

He studied under the prominent director Theodore Komisarjevsky and debuted in Yakov Protazanov's Aelita (1924). Later he became a Protazanov regular, appearing in The Man from the Restaurant (1927) together with Mikhail Chekhov.

In the 1930s he was a leading actor of Alexander Tairov's Chamber Theatre, before moving to the Malyi Theatre where he was engaged from 1938 till the rest of his life and most fully unfolded his actor’s gift, mainly playing classical repertoire parts (in Wolves and Sheep, The Inspector-General, Heart is not a Stone, The Thunderstorm, etc.)

Mikhail Zharov gained wide popularity thanks to the role of Zhigan in Nikolai Ekk’s world-known drama Road to Life (1931). Playing a chieftain of a thieves' gang, the actor made use of the opportunities of the first sound-film: he endowed his character with a specific accent, played the guitar and sang songs with his peculiar charm. In 1933 he played in Boris Barnet's Okraina.

The most acclaimed of his sound films were Peter the Great (1938), in which he played Prince Menshikov, and Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible (1942–44), in which he played Malyuta Skuratov. His last and probably the most popular role was that of Aniskin, an amusing and witty village militiaman in the television series The Village Detective (1968), Aniskin & Fantomas (1974) and Aniskin Again (1978).

Zharov was awarded three Stalin Prizes: twice in 1941 and in 1942.

Selected filmography

• Aelita (1924)
• His Call (1925)
• Chess Fever (1925)
• Man from the Restaurant (1927)
• Okraina (1933)
• Marionettes (1934)
• The Return of Maxim (1937)
• The Vyborg Side (1939)
• The Young Fritz (1943)
• In the Name of the Fatherland (1943)
• Ivan the Terrible (1943)
• Michurin (1948)
• Kain XVIII (1963)

External links

• Mikhail Zharov at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography of Mikhail Zharov

Persondata
Name	Zharov, Mikhail
Alternative names
Short description	Russian actor
Date of birth	October 15, 1899
Place of birth	Moscow, Russian Empire
Date of death	December 15, 1981
Place of death	Moscow, USSR