Mikhail Nazvanov

Mikhail Mikhailovich Nazvanov (Михаил Михайлович Названов; 12 April 1918 – 13 July 1964) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. He was awarded Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1949.

Biography
Mikhail Nazvanov was born in Moscow in the wealthy family of a large technologist-technologist Mikhail K. Nazhanov; his mother, Olga Nikolayevna Butomo-Nazhanova, was a famous chamber singer. In 1931 he graduated from Academic Music College.

Between 1931 and 1935 Nazvanov studied acting at the Drama Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. April 1935 he was arrested and until 1940 imprisoned in Gulag (article 58-10, Ukhtpechlag).

In 1942 Nazvanov was invited to join the Mossovet Theatre; between 1950 and 1957 he was member of the troupe at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre. In 1957 he was again invited to join the Art Theater, which, however, left in 1960 and became actor in the Mosfilm-studio. As a stage actor he played Trigorin in The Seagull, Krechinsky in Krechinsky's Wedding, Ripafratta in The Mistress of the Inn, Robert Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, and Stiva Oblonsky in Anna Karenina.

Mikhail Nazvanov made his film debut in 1943 in the popular film Wait for Me and immediately gained fame. Sergei Eisenstein invited him to the role of Andrey Kurbsky in Ivan the Terrible. He collaborated also with such famous directors as Grigori Aleksandrov (Encounter at the Elbe, The Composer Glinka), Vsevolod Pudovkin (Zhukovsky), Mikhail Romm (The Russian Question, Attack from the Sea), Grigori Kozintsev (Belinsky, Hamlet). Nazvanov has also directed film The Mistress of the Inn.

Selected filmography

 * Wait for Me (1943) as Andrei Panov
 * Ivan the Terrible (1944) as prince Andrey Kurbsky
 * The Great Glinka (1946) as hussar Kostya
 * The Russian Question (1947) as Jack Gould
 * Encounter at the Elbe (1949) as James Hill
 * The Battle of Stalingrad (1949) as Colonel Ivan Lyudnikov
 * Taras Shevchenko (1951) as Nicholas I of Russia, Alexander II of Russia
 * Belinsky (1951) as Nicholas I of Russia
 * Zhukovsky (1951) as Ryabushinsky
 * The Composer Glinka (1952) as Nicholas I of Russia
 * Attack from the Sea (1952) as Alexander I of Russia
 * The Safety Match (1954) as Mark Ivanovich Klyauzov
 * The Mistress of the Inn (1956) as Ripafratta (also director)
 * Gutta-percha Boy (1957) as Karl Bogdanovich Bekker
 * Duel (1960) as Vladimir Nikolayev
 * The Fight on a Way (1961) as Semyon Valgan
 * My Younger Brother (1962) as Andrei Ivanovich, professor
 * Hamlet (1964) as Claudius

Honors and awards

 * Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1949)
 * Stalin Prize (1948, 1949, 1950)
 * Order of the Badge of Honour (1950)