Karm, Kaarel

(pseudonym of Kaarel Länts). Born Oct. 5 (18), 1906, in Narva. Soviet Estonian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1956).

From 1925 to 1949, Karm was an actor in the Estonia Theater. He joined the V. Kingissepp Estonian Theater of Drama in Tallinn in 1949. Among his best parts in the classical repertoire have been Hamlet, Othello, and Antony in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello, and Antony and Cleopatra, respectively; Mephis-topheles in Goethe’s Faust; Arbenin in Lermontov’s Masquerade; Protasov in L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse; Juhani in Kivi’s Seven Brothers; and Jan in Kitzberg’s Whirlwinds. Among the parts he has played in Estonian dramas are Ralf in Life in the Citadel and Allan in The Jackals, both by Jakobson; Kustas Lokk in Conscience and Mart Tuisk in Prodigal Son, both by Rannet; Jõnn in Schmuul’s Wild Captain; and Clever Ants in Tammsaare’s New Satan From Põrgupõhja. In plays by other Soviet writers, he has performed as Borovskii in Lavrenev’s To Those At Sea! and as Stryzhen’ in Korneichuk’s The Destruction of the Squadron. Karm is a master of character portrayal. He has a forceful stage presence and good stage delivery. He has also appeared in movies. Karm received the State Prize of the Estonian SSR in 1949 and 1959.