Petker, Boris Iakovlevich

Born Oct. 15 (28), 1902, in Kharkov. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1963). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Petker studied at the Kharkov School of Drama in 1918 and 1919 under M. M. Tarkhanov and worked in the N. N. Sinel’-nikov Theater in Kharkov. In 1922 he graduated from the drama studio attached to the former Korsh Theater in Moscow and went to work at the theater. In 1933 he became a member of the Moscow Art Theater’s company. A character actor, he is a master of details of everyday life and of stage invention. He not only creates a subtle psychological portrayal but also pays a great deal of attention to external details. His best roles are Pliushkin (Dead Souls after N. V. Gogol’), Malinin (Liubov’ Iarovaia by Trenev), Salai Saltanych (The Last Sacrifice by Os-trovskii), Vasilii Shuiskii (Tsar Fedor Ioannovich by A. K. Tolstoy), Grossman (The Fruits of Enlightenment by L. N. Tolstoy), the Lawyer (Anna Karenina after L. N. Tolstoy), the Watchmaker (The Kremlin Chimes by Pogodin), and Rakhuma (The Golden Carriage by Leonov). Petker is also a film actor. He has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.