Tolchanov, Iosif Moiseevich

Born Apr. 29 (May 11), 1891, in Moscow. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1962).

In 1918, with a group from the Mamonov Studio, Tolchanov joined the company of the Evg. Vakhtangov Studio (since 1926, the Evg. Vakhtangov Theater). He performed several roles under the direction of Vakhtangov, including Barak in Gozzi’s Turandot. He achieved his greatest artistic success in playing roles in Soviet plays, such as Magar in Seifullina and Pravduk-hin’s Virineia, Savelii in Leonov’s Barsuki, and his best role, Ivan Shadrin in Pogodin’s Man With a Gun. Tolchanov also played major roles in the Russian classics, such as Arbenin in Lermontov’s Masquerade, the Baron in Pushkin’s The Covetous Knight, Iakov Maiakin in a dramatization of Gorky’s Foma Gordeev, Ep-amchin in a dramatization of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, and Abrez-kov in L. N. Tolstoy’s The Living Corpse. He also played the role of Ragimov in Ibragimbekov’s The Woman Behind the Green Door.

In 1920, Tolchanov joined the faculty of the B. V. Schchukin Theatrical School, becoming á professor there in 1946. He has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.