Larikov, Aleksandr
Larikov, Aleksandr Iosifovich
Born Aug. 29 (Sept. 10), 1890, in St. Petersburg; died May 13, 1960, in Leningrad. Soviet Russian actor; People’s Artist of the USSR (1956). Member of the CPSU from 1945.
Larikov began acting in 1910. From 1925 until the end of his life he worked with the Gorky Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater. The plays of M. Gorky were central in his repertoire. He performed the roles of Teterev, Pavlin, and Gubin in The Philistines, Egor Bulychev and Others, and Dostigaev and Others; his portrayal of the old weaver Levshin in Enemies was truly inspired. One of Larikov’s triumphs was the role of Grandfather Laguta in Pogodin’s After the Ball; he played a genuine man of the soil, whose self-awareness as a farmer rose to the heights of true poetry.
Larikov displayed merciless satirical power in the following roles: Prince Potemkin in Shtein’s The Admiral’s Flag, Boatswain Shvach in Lavrenev’s The Break, and The Nay-Sayer in Virta’s Unbounded Horizons. Larikov won the State Prize of the USSR in 1951. He was awarded two orders and several medals.