Mikhail Mikhailovich Klimov

Born Nov. 8 (20), 1880, in St. Petersburg; died July 9, 1942, in Tbilisi. Soviet Russian actor; People’s Artist of the USSR (1937).

Klimov embarked on a professional stage career in 1901 by acting in provincial theaters. Between 1904 and 1909 he worked with the Moscow Korsh Theater. Subsequently, he worked (with interruptions) with the Malyi Theater. Klimov’s art was distinguished for its high degree of professionalism. Brilliantly evocative and especially successful in comedy roles, he often softened his satirical bite with gentle humor and subtle irony. His roles included Teliatev, Lyniaev, and Dudukin in Mad Money, Wolves and Sheep, and Guilty Though Guiltless by Ostrovskii, and Famusov in Woe From Wit by Griboedov. Klimov was also at home with keenly accusatory satire. He emphasized the cold, calculating cruelty, canting hypocrisy, and cynicism in his portrayals of Zemlianika in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, Petrygin in Leonov’s Skutarevskii, and Gorodulin in Ostrovskii’s Even a Wise Man Stumbles.

Klimov also acted on the screen (The Trial of Three Million, St. Jorgen’s Day, and The Dowerless Girl). He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.