Vasilii Aleksandrovich Orlov

Born Nov. 25 (Dec. 7), 1896, in Skopin, Riazan’ Oblast; died May 9, 1974, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actor and teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR (1960).

A graduate of the Moscow Art Theater school in 1925, Orlov joined the theater’s company in 1926. His best roles were Iakov Bardin and The Actor in Gorky’s The Enemies and The Lower Depths, Vasin in Simonov’s The Russian People, Dronov in Ale-shin’s Everything Is Left to the People, and Kulygin, Petia Trofimov, and Voinitskii in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. Another important role was Berezkin in Leonov’s The Golden Carriage, a play Orlov co-directed. Orlov also co-directed Gorky’s The Summer People (1953) with M. N. Kedrov and staged Ostrovskii’s Guilty Though Guiltless (1963).

In 1929, Orlov began teaching at the State Institute of Theatrical Arts, becoming a professor in 1943; here he directed a number of national acting studios, including the Lithuanian studio. Beginning in 1943, he also taught at the Nemirovich-Danchenko School-Studio. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1949), Orlov was also awarded an Order of Lenin, three other orders, and several medals.