Papazian, Vagram

Born Jan. 6 (18), 1888, in Istanbul; died June 5, 1968, in Leningrad. Soviet Armenian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1956).

Papazian received his stage training in Italy (Venice and Milan), where he appeared with the troupes of E. Duse, E. Novelli, E. Zacconi, and G. Grasso. He worked intermittently in Armenian theaters in Istanbul from 1907 to 1922. Late in 1922 he went to live in the Soviet Union. From 1922 to 1953 he acted with Armenian and Russian troupes in Yerevan, Tbilisi, Baku, and Leningrad and toured in many cities of the USSR, as well as in France, Iran, Bulgaria, and Lebanon. From 1954, he was an actor at the G. Sundukian Armenian Theater in Yerevan.

Papazian possessed a polished performing technique and brilliant artistry. In his acting, he combined the experience of the Western European school of acting with the democratic traditions of Armenian stage art. His best roles were Othello, Hamlet, Romeo, and Macbeth in Shakespeare’s plays, Arbenin in Ler-montov’s Masquerade, Protasov in Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse, and MacGregor in Saroyan’s My Heart’s in the Highlands. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and a number of medals.