Kuanyshpaev, Kalibek

Born Apr. 25, 1893, in Sarytau, in present-day Karkaralinsk Raion, Karaganda Oblast; died June 7, 1968, in Alma-Ata. Soviet Kazakh actor, People’s Artist of the USSR (1959). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Kuanyshpaev performed at national festivals and fairs as a folk comedian and wit. In 1925 he helped organize in Kzyl-Orda the first professional Kazakh theater (the present-day M. O. Auezov Kazakh Drama Theater in Alma-Ata), in which he worked until the end of his life. His best roles include the title role in Auezov and Sobolev’s Abai, Baluan in Musrepov’s Akhan-Sere and Aktokty, Kunanbai in Auezov’s Abai (for which he was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1952), the Mayor in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, General Panfilov in Auezov and Abishev’s Guard of Honor, and Baptista in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. In 1937 he began acting in films. Kuanyshpaev was a deputy to the second, third, and fourth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.