Garin E.P. (1902-1980), actor

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
GARIN (born Gerasimov) Erast Pavlovich (1902-1980), actor and director, People's Artist of the USSR in 1977. He graduated from the Higher Experimental Theatre Workshops in Moscow in 1926. He was an actor at the Amateur Theatre of the Red Army in 1919-22 and the First Workers' Theatre of Proletkult (proletarian cultural movement) in 1922-23 in Moscow. A brilliant eccentric actor renowned for his skills in transformations and the grotesque. He was among the principal actors at the Meyerhold Theatre in Moscow in 1922, 1923-29, and 1930-36 where he played key roles in many performances. He worked at the Bolshoy Drama Theatre in Leningrad from 1930. He collaborated with his wife, director K. A. Lokshina, to stage Dear Comrade based on M. M. Zoshchenko's story at the Theatre of Satire in Leningrad (see Theatre of Comedy) in the same year and N. F. Pogodin's Poem of an Axe at the First Workers' Theatre of Leningrad Proletkult in 1934. Working as an actor and director at the Theatre of Comedy in 1936-40, he appeared as the Shadow in E. L. Schwarz's play of the same name in 1940, staged V. V. Shkvarkin's Simple Girl in 1938, etc. He worked at the Theatre of Comedy for Director's Plays in 1948-49 where he played in A. A. Galich and K. F. Isaev's Taimyr Calls You, A. V. Sofronov's Moscow Temper, A. P. Chekhov's Bear, etc. He made his debut as a film director at Lenfilm Studio in 1937 by directing N. V. Gogol's Marriage together with Lokshina. He appeared as Podkolesin in the same film. Among other film roles played at the same studio were Tarakanov in Musical Story of 1940 and the King in Cinderella of 1947. He was an actor and director at Moscow's Film Actor Studio Theatre in 1947-48 and 1950-59 and staged a number of plays at various Moscow theatres in the 1950s-60s. He worked as an actor and director at film studios in Moscow from 1940 and radio stations from 1930. He wrote reminiscences, With Meyerhold, that were published in Moscow in 1974.

References: Эраст Гарин: Орденоносец. Л., 1939; Юткевич С. И. Эраст Гарин - режиссер и артист из "стаи востроносых" // Искусство кино. 1982. № 3. С. 115-128.

A. A. Kirillov. Chekhov Anton Pavlovich
Galich (real name Ginzburg) Alexander Arkadievich
Garin (real name Gerasimov) Erast Pavlovich
Gogol Nikolay Vasilievich
Isaev Konstantin Fedorovich
Lokshina Khesya Alexandrovna
Meyerhold Vsevolod Emilievich
Pogodin (real name Stukalov) Nikolay Fedorovich
Schwarz Evgeny Lvovich
Shkvarkin Vasily Vasilievich
Sofronov Anatoly Vladimirovich
Zoschenko Mikhail Mikhailovich
Эраст Гарин. Орденоносец. Л., 1939
Юткевич С. И. Эраст Гарин - режиссер и артист из "стаи востроносых" // Искусство кино, 1982 Tovstonogov Bolshoy Drama Theatre
Akimov Comedy Theatre
Lenfilm, Film Studio