Theodor Iurevich Altermann

Born Nov. 12 (24), 1885; died Mar. 18 (31), 1915. Estonian actor.

Altermann began his artistic career in 1902. From 1906 on, with one interruption, he was an actor of the Estonia Theater, which he had helped to organize. He was the first to perform the roles of Leo Saalep and Pijbelekht in Vil’de’s Tantalizing Miracle and Goblin. Altermann’s roles in classical repertory included the Baron (Pushkin’s Covetous Knight), Khlestakov (Gogol’s The Inspector-General), Boris Godunov (A. K. Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan the Terrible), and Othello and Hamlet from the plays of Shakespeare.

Altermann’s acting was distinguished by his ability to assume the identity of a character and bring it vividly to life. Altermann was also a producer and director; he staged Vil’de’s Tantalizing Miracle in 1913, Lermontov’s Masquerade in 1914, A. N. Ostrovskii’s Guilty Without Fault in 1915, and others.