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Michael Tschechow


1891 - 1955

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The actor Michael Chekhov worked primarily as a stage actor, but also directed stage plays and was active as an author. His uncle was the famous writer Anton Chekhov.
 
After his school education, Michael Chekhov went to Suvoring's theater school, from which he graduated in 1910.
In 1911, he made his stage debut in St. Petersburg at the Malyi Theater before being engaged by the Moscow Artists' Theater MChAT in the same year.
 
In 1922, he became artistic director at this theater, succeeding the late Vakhtangov.
 
Michael Chekhov already took part in some Russian silent movies from 1913, to these movies belong “Tryokhsotletie tsarstvovaniya doma Romanovykh” (13), “Sverchok na pechi” (15) and “Vsse v nashikh rukakh” (21).
 
When the political situation in Russia changed because of the Russian Revolution and his spiritual view of life was no longer accepted, he fled to Berlin in 1928.
 
There he took part in two more movies with “Der Narr seiner Liebe” (29) and “Phantome des Glücks” (29).

In Europe, too, the theater world remained his preferred domain and he received engagements in Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Riga in the coming years.
But here, too, serious political changes followed with the rise of the National Socialists. He decided to go to England, where he took over the management of the theater in Devonshire. In 1936, he joined the newly founded Chekhov Theatre Studio.
 
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Chekhov Theatre moved to the USA and Michael Chekhov also went to the USA. From Ridgefield, he finally went to Hollywood, where he gave lessons to numerous acting students and introduced them to his acting method. His most famous students included Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergmann.
 
He also continued his film career in the USA.
To his movies belong “Song of Russia” (44), Alfred Hitchcock's “Ich kämpfe um dich” (45), “Cross My Heart” (46), “The Price of Freedom” (49), “Geborgtes Glück” (52) and “Symphonie des Herzens” (54).
 
Michael Chekhov was married with the actress Olga Chekhova in his first marriage. Their daughter Ada Tschechowa became an actress too.


Other movies with Michael Tschechow:
Kogda zvuchat struny serdtsa (14) Shkaf s surprizom (15) Liubvi syurprizy tshechetnye (16) Chelovek iz resotrana (27) Troika (30) In Our Time (44) Specter of the Rose (46) Abie's Irish Rose (46) Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (48) Holiday for Sinners (52)

 
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