Romanov, Mikhail Fedorovich

Born Oct. 16 (28), 1896, in St. Petersburg; died Sept. 4, 1963, in Kiev. Soviet Russian actor, stage director, and theatrical figure. People’s Artist of the USSR (1951). Member of the CPSU from 1950.

In 1920, Romanov completed drama courses in Petrograd. He first worked in various Petrograd theaters, and from 1924 to 1936 at the A. S. Pushkin Leningrad Drama Theater. He was an actor from 1936 and principal director from 1954 to 1959 at the Lesia Ukrainka Theater in Kiev.

Onstage, Romanov combined a simplicity and naturalness of style with subtle psychological insight and philosophic depth. His major roles were Okaemov in Afinogenov’s Mashen’ka and Fedor Protasov in L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse. Other roles included Pavel Protasov in Gorky’s Children of the Sun, Voinitskii in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, Harry Smith in Simo-nov’s The Russian Question, and the Knight Commander in Lesia Ukrainka’s The Stone Master. Romanov staged many plays, gave public readings, and acted in films. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and various medals.