Mark Isaakovich Prudkin

Born Sept. 1 (13), 1898, in Klin. Soviet actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1961). Member of the CPSU since 1941.

Prudkin appeared in the productions of the Moscow Art Theater and of the theater’s Second Studio beginning in 1918. He graduated from the studio’s school in 1920 and joined the theater’s company in 1924. Prudkin has a special affinity for sharply defined character roles and for satirical and comedy roles. He is a master of characterization and has created a number of dramatic and penetrating psychological portraits. His roles have included Shervinskii in Bulgakov’s Days of the Turbins, Nezelasov in Vs. Ivanov’s Armored Train 14–69, Vron-skii and Karenin in Anna Karenina, adapted from L. N. Tolstoy’s novel, Mekhti-Aga in Kron’s Distant Reconnaissance, Mikhail Skrobotov and Iakov Kolomiitsev in Gorky’s The Enemies and The Last Ones, and Dul’chin and Krutitskii in Os-trovskii’s The Last Victim and Even a Wise Man Stumbles. Prudkin is best known for the role of Fedor Pavlovich Karamazov in the play and film The Brothers Karamazov, adapted from Dos-toevsky’s novel (State Prize of the USSR, 1946, 1947, 1949; State Prize of the RSFSR, 1974). He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.