Zubov, Konstantin Aleksandrovich

Born Sept. 8 (20), 1888, in the village of Bazarnyi Syzgan, in present-day Inza Raion, in Ulianovsk Oblast; died Nov. 22, 1956, in Moscow. Russian Soviet actor, director, and teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR (1949). Member of the CPSU from 1942.

Zubov studied simultaneously at St. Petersburg University and the St. Petersburg Theatrical School (with V. N. Dabydov). He made his debut in the role of Alesha in the play Vaniushin’s Children by Naidenov. He worked in Samara, Kharkov, and Kiev and at the Korsh Theater in Moscow. In 1917 he became a director. During 1921–24 he acted and directed in the First Far Eastern Military and Revolutionary Theater. During 1925–31, he worked at the Moscow Theater of the Revolution, where he played a number of sharply satirical character roles, including Semen Rak (in Romashev’s Souffle) and Kalman (in Toller’s Hurrah! We’re Alive). He was art director of the Lensovet Theater in Moscow and from 1932 to 1938 directed the plays The Rout, based on Fadeev, and Platon Krechet by Korneichuk (in which he starred). From 1936 he was an actor and director (from 1947, chief director) of the Malyi Theater.

Zubov’ s work was psychologically profound, intellectual, and brilliantly theatrical; he was a master of dialogue. In his direction he sought to reveal a play’s social idea. Zubov’s best productions were Eugenie Grandet, based on Balzac (1939), The Barbarians by Gorky (1941, with I. la. Studakov; Zubov played Tsyganov), Pygmalion by Shaw (1943; he played Higgins), For Those At Sea! by Lavrenev (1947, with V. I. Tsygankov), The Russian Question by Simonov (1947; he played McPherson), Vassa Zheleznova (1952, with E. P. Velikhov),fV;r/Arthur by Stepanov and Popov (1953; with P. A. Markov; he played Stessel), and Wings by Korneichuk (1955, with Tsygankov).

Zubov began teaching at the M. S. Shchepkin Theatrical School in 1920 (professor, 1946). He was a deputy to the fourth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1946, 1947, 1948, and 1951. He received the Orcǀer of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals.