Mikhail Zharov
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Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov (October 27, 1900 - December 15, 1981) was one of the most celebrated Soviet actors, People's Artist of the USSR (1949) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1974). 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.
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 USSR State Prizes.
