Iurev, Iurii

Iur’ev, Iurii Mikhailovich 

Born Jan. 3 (15), 1872, in Moscow; died Mar. 13, 1948, in Leningrad. Soviet Russian actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1939).

Iur’ev studied under A. I. Iuzhin at the Moscow Philharmonic School. After completing drama courses under A. P. Lenskii at the Moscow Theatrical School, he spent his entire career—from 1893 to 1948—with the Aleksandrinskii Theater (now the Leningrad Academic Drama Theater). From 1922 to 1928 he headed the theater.

Iur’ev was the most outstanding representative of the Russian heroic-romantic school. His roles included Chatskii in Griboedov’s Woe From Wit, Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the title role in Goethe’s Faust, Ferdinand in Love and Intrigue and Karl Moor in The Robbers, both by Schiller, Arbenin in Lermontov’s Masquerade (1917, 1920, 1930), and Neschastlivtsev in Ostrovskii’s The Forest.

In 1919, Iur’ev, M. Gorky, A. V. Lunacharskii, A. A. Blok, and M. F. Andreeva established the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Petrograd. Iur’ev also gave dramatic readings, for example, of Goethe’s Egmont. Beginning in 1898 he taught various drama courses, for example, at the School of Russian Drama and at the Leningrad Theatrical Institute. He was the author of a book of memoirs (1948).

Iur’ev received the State Prize of the USSR in 1943. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.

REFERENCES

Maliutin, Ia. O. Aktery moego pokoleniia. Leningrad-Moscow, 1959.
Gitel’man, L., and N. Rabiniants. “Vysokoe iskusstvo: K stoletiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Iu. M. Iur’eva.” Teatr, 1972, no. 2.