Biography

Soviet, Georgian film actor, theater, film, animation director, animator, screenwriter, sculptor, teacher; People's Artist of the USSR (1948). Winner of five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1950). In 1909 he graduated from the Tiflis vocational school. In 1912 he graduated from the Tiflis School of Painting and Sculpture (now the Tbilisi Academy of Arts), a student of Yakov Nikoladze. Since 1915 he worked in the theaters of Tiflis, Kutaisi and Batumi as an actor, director and artist. In 1917, under the guidance of the historian Ekvtime Takaishvili, together with the futurist poet Ilya Zdanevich, the artists Lado Gudiashvili and Dimitri Shevardnadze, he was on an expedition to the southern regions of Georgia (Turkey). Archaeological activities were held in the churches of Ishkhan, Oshki and Khakhuli. In 1921, he participated in the organization of the Theater of Revolutionary Satire at the Georgian branch of ROSTA. From 1922 to 1924 he lived in Germany, where he worked in sculpture workshops, after which from 1924 to 1926 he worked as a sculptor in Tiflis (the author of the first sculpture of V. Lenin in Georgia). From 1926 to 1928 - actor and director of the "Workers' Theatre", "Red Theater" under Proletkult. From 1926 to 1941, he was the director and artistic director of the Georgian Theater of Musical Comedy named after V. Abashidze, organized by him in 1934 together with David Dzneladze on the basis of the mobile musical and drama theater "Kopteatr", which existed since 1926. Since 1928, he was the director of the trust JSC Goskinoprom of Georgia (since 1938 - the Tbilisi Film Studio, now - Georgia-Film), since 1940 - the artistic director of this studio. In 1946-1955 he was the director of the Mosfilm film studio, in 1955-1957 - the Sverdlovsk film studio. He taught at the film acting school at the Tbilisi Film Studio, in 1950-1960 - a teacher at VGIK (Moscow) (since 1951 - professor). Member of the CPSU (b) since 1940. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1-3 convocations (1937-1954). He died on October 31, 1974 at the age of 81 in Tbilisi. He was buried in the Pantheon of Georgian Cultural Figures on Mount Mtatsminda.