Konstantin Skorobogatov

Born Feb. 22 (Mar. 6), 1887, in the village of Aleksandrovskoe, now within the city limits of Leningrad; died July 28, 1969, in Leningrad. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1953).

At the age of ten, Skorobogatov began working at the Obu-khov Plant. He began acting in amateur productions in 1903 and in professional theaters in 1905. He was an actor in the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater from 1928 to 1935. In 1936 he joined the A. S. Pushkin Leningrad Academic Drama Theater, where he became administrative director in 1951.

Skorobogatov portrayed the title role in Lenin by Kapler and Zlatogorova. His best roles included Shvandia in Trenev’s Liubov’ Iarovaia, Bratishka in Bill’-Belotserkovskii’s The Gale, Godun in Lavrenev’s Break, Egor Bulychov, Dostigaev, Antipa Zykov, and Luka in Gorky’s Egor Bulychov and the Others, Dostigaev and the Others, The Zykovs, and The Lower Depths, Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello, and Suvorov in Commander Suvorov by Bakhterev and Razumovskii. He played the title roles in the films Pugachev (1937) and Pirogov (1947). Skorobogatov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1941, 1948, 1949, and twice in 1951. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.