Pinna, Paul

(Paul Pinna). Born Oct. 3, 1884, in Tallinn; died there Mar. 29, 1949. Soviet Estonian actor. People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR (1942).

Pinna made his stage debut in 1897. He was one of the founders of the Estonia Theater in Tallinn, in which he worked until the end of his life, with only brief interruptions. He acted mainly in dramatic and character roles, including Akim in L. N. Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness, Protasov in Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse, the Mayor in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, Vestmann in Vilde’s The House Spirit, and Milas in Jakobson’s Life in a Citadel. With T. Altermann, Pinna published the first Estonian theatrical magazine, The Stage (1909-10). He acted in operettas, directed plays, and was both a vaudeville and film actor. He was the author of a number of books about the theater.