Mark Prudkin

Biography

Mark Prudkin was an actor of Moscow Art Theatre, who refused to work in film for 40 years, believing that acting on stage is a superior form of art. He was born Mark Isaakovich Prudkin on September 14, 1898, in Klin, Russian Empire. His father, Isaac Prudkin, was a tailor in Klin. From 1918 - 1924 Prudkin studied acting at 2nd Studio of Moscow Art Theatre. In 1924 he was invited by Konstantin Stanislavski to join the company of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). In 1927 Prudkin made his film debut as cameo in a silent movie Man from the Restaurant (1927) by director Yakov Protazanov, then appeared as Officer in Sedmoy sputnik (1927). For the next 40 years Prudkin refused to work in movies; he even rejected the offer from Grigoriy Kozintsev to star as King Lear in the famous adaptation of the Shakespeare's play. However, in 1969 Prudkin appeared as father Fedor Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1969), an Academy Award-nominated film by directors Ivan Pyrev, Kirill Lavrov, and Mikhail Ulyanov. From 1924 to 1994 Mark Prudkin was a permanent member of the troupe at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). There his stage partners were such renown Russian actors as Alla Tarasova, Anatoli Ktorov, Olga Androvskaya, Angelina Stepanova, Nikolay Khmelyov, Mikhail Yanshin, Aleksey Gribov, Boris Livanov, Mikhail Kedrov, Viktor Stanitsyn, Anastasiya Georgievskaya, Vasili Toporkov, Mikhail Bolduman, Pavel Massalsky, and the next generation of MKhAT actors - Kira Golovko, Iya Savvina, Alla Pokrovskaya, Anastasiya Voznesenskaya, Irina Miroshnichenko, Oleg Tabakov, Andrey Myagkov, Vladimir Kashpur, Viktor Sergachyov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Stanislav Lyubshin, Sergey Sazontev, Avangard Leontev, Igor Vasilev, and others. Prudkin's acting career spanned 70 years, and he was a member of the board at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). Mark Prudkin received Stalin's Prize three times (1946, 1947, 1949), and was designated People's Actor of the USSR. He died of a heart failure, on 25 September 1994, in Moscow, and was laid to rest in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia.