Mark Issaakowitsch Prudkin

Mark Isaakovich Prudkin (Russian: Марк Исаакович Прудкин ; 13 September 1898 – 24 September 1994) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1961). Hero of Socialist Labour (1989). Laureate of three Stalin Prizes (1946, 1947, 1949).

Mark Isaakovich Prudkin was born on 1 September (13), 1898 (according to other sources – 2 September (14), 1898) in the town of Klin (now the Moscow Region) in the family of tailor Isaak Lvovich Prudkin (1871–1949) and musician Rakhil Lazarevna Prudkina (maiden name - Sot, 1880–1945).

He became interested in theater while still studying in the Klin Realschule, took part in amateur theater performances. From 1918 to 1924 he was a student and actor in the 2nd Studio of the Moscow Art Theater (in parallel from 1918 to 1919 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University).

Since 1924, Mark Prudkin worked in the Moscow Art Theatre (since 1989 - in the Moscow Art Theater named after Chekhov).

In the studio, he especially succeeded in the roles of the heroic-romantic type - Karl Moor, "The Robbers" by Friedrich Schiller (1923), Don Luis in "The Invisible Lady Calderon" (1924), Chatsky in "Woe from Wit" by Alexander Griboedov (1925). Over time, the creative range of Prudkin expanded, which contributed to his talent of transformation, the ability to delve into the psychological essence of the created image, attention to external attributes – costume, makeup, facial expressions. All this allowed the actor to show on the stage a variety of characters, sometimes opposite in character, such as the frivolous adjutant Shervinsky, "The Days of the Turbins" by Mikhail Bulgakov (1926), the gloomy captain Nezelasov, "Armored train 14–69" by Vsevolod Ivanov (1927), the self-confident and cowardly Kastalsky, "The Fear" by Alexander Afinogenov (1932), Vronsky (1937) and Karenin (1957) in "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, Dulchin, The Last Victim by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1946), ambitious careerist engineer Mehti-Aga, "Deep exploration" by Alexander Kron, Fyodor Karamazov, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1961), Baker, "The Winter of our Discontent" based on the novel by John Steinbeck (1964).

Together with Olga Androvskaya and other "great old men" of the Moscow Art Theater – Alexey Gribov, Viktor Stanitsyn and Mikhail Yanshin played in a specially staged for them famous play "Solo for Clock Chime" based on the play by Osvald Zahradník (1973). In 1983, he played Pontius Pilate in the play "The Candle Ball" based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", staged by his son, Vladimir Prudkin.

In 1969, The Brothers Karamazov was released, with Mark Prudkin in the role of Fyodor Karamazov – the same one that he played on stage. Apart from a tiny episode in the silent film by Yakov Protazanov Man from the Restaurant, it was his first role in the cinema at the age of 71. He played small but memorable roles in the films The Twelve Chairs, The Blonde Around the Corner, Autumn Wind, in the television movie Uncle's Dream by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and others.

In 1943, Mark Prudkin was one of the supervisors of the Moscow Art Theater – the artistic and director's union, which consisted of five people.

In 1987, a gramophone record was released with records of fragments of the best works by Mark Prudkin in recent years in the theater, on television and radio.

He lived in Moscow, in Glinischevsky Lane, house 5/7.

Mark Isaakovich Prudkin died on 24 September 1994 at the age of 96, 75 of which he devoted to the theater. He was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery (site No. 10).