Mikhail Yanshin

Mikhail Mikhailovich Yanshin (October 20 [2 November] 1902, Yukhnov, Smolensk Province - July 17, 1976, Moscow) was a Soviet Russian film and theater actor, theater director. People's Artist of the USSR (1955). Winner of the State Prize of the USSR (1975). Winner of the RSFSR State Prize named after KS Stanislavsky (1970). Mikhail Yanshin was born on October 20 (November 2), 1902 in Yukhnov, Yukhnovsky district (now Kaluga region), - according to other sources - in Smolensk, - in the family of a bank clerk. M. M. Yanshin was the uncle of Academician A. L. Yanshin (1911–1999). After graduating from the Olkhovsky City Real School (1909–1916), he studied for three years at the Moscow secondary Komissarovsky Technical School, and in 1919 became a student at the Higher Technical School (now the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School). In 1919 he volunteered for the Red Army. In 1922 he entered the school of the Second Studio of the Moscow Art Academic Theater; in 1924, together with other young studio students (in particular, with N. P. Khmelev, M. N. Kedrov, and B. N. Livanov) he was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater, whose actor he remained until the end of his life. The first notable roles of Yanshin in the Art Theater were Dobchinsky in N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector-General" and Petrushka the lackey in the "Woe from Wit" by A. S. Griboyedov. But the famous (and not “star”) for him was the role of Lariosika in the play “Days of the Turbins” by M. A. Bulgakov. Subsequently, Yanshin, remaining an actor of the Moscow Art Theater, worked in other theaters - from 1934 to 1939 he was the artistic director of the Moscow Theater of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Furniture and Music Industry of the USSR, from 1937 to 1941 he headed the theater "Romen", from 1950 to 1963 was the main director of the Moscow Drama Theater named after KS Stanislavsky. On the initiative of Yanshin, O. N. Efremov was invited to the Moscow Art Theater. Along with the work in the theater Yanshin, since the 1920s, many starred in movies. One of the favorite artists of "Soyuzmultfilm", voiced the characters of many cartoons. He often worked with the sisters Brumberg, wrote the script for the cartoon “Eve before Christmas” for them. M. M. Yanshin died on July 17, 1976 (according to other sources - July 16) in Moscow. He was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery (station number 7). Vladimir Vysotsky called his favorite actor Yanshin.