Ilin, Boris

Born Apr. 8 (21), 1901, in Saratov. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1956).

In 1919–20, Il’in studied at the theatrical school of M. I. Velizarii and later in the Higher Theater Workshops in Saratov. From 1921 to 1925 he acted with the Saratov City Theater. He subsequently worked in the theaters of Odessa, Kuibyshev, Baku, Kharkov, and other cities. In 1936 he joined the troupe of the Sverdlovsk Dramatic Theater. His first important roles, which included Uriel Acosta in Gutzkow’s play of the same name and Chatskii in Griboedov’s Woe From Wit, determined the heroic and romantic direction of his art. This was vividly revealed in Soviet dramatic works, in which Il’in created the characters of active, purposeful, and talented people. His best roles have been Platon and Ognev in Korneichuk’s Platon Kre-chet and The Front, Godun in Lavrenev’s The Break, and Murav’ev in Chirskov’s The Victors. Il’in created the characters of V. I. Lenin in Pogodin’s play The Kremlin Chimes and of Ia. M. Sverdlov in the play The Bolshevik by Del’. His important roles in Russian and foreign classical dramas have included Voinitskii in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Protasov in L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse, Prince Volkovskii in The Insulted and Injured after Dostoevsky, Don Cesar de Bazan in Hugo’s Ruy Bias, the title role in Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and Iarope-gov in Gorky’s Somov and Others.