Tammur, Ilmar

Tammur, Il’mar Augustovich 

(limar Tammur). Born May 11, 1921, in Narva. Soviet Estonian actor and stage director. People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR (1964). Member of the CPSU since 1968.

In 1941, Tammur graduated from the School of Theater Arts in Tallinn. He worked as a stage director and actor at the Vanemuine Theater in Tartu from 1944 to 1946 and at the Tallinn Drama Theater from 1946 to 1948. He was principal director and manager of the Endla Theater in Parnu from 1948 to 1952 and subsequently principal director of the V. Kingissepp Estonian Drama Theater from 1952 to 1970 and of the Philharmonica of the Estonian SSR (Tallinn) from 1970 to 1974. Since 1974 he has been a stage director and actor at the Rakvere Theater.

Tammur’s roles have included the title role in Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Shvandia in Trenev’s Liubov’ larovaia, and Wergan in Hauptmann’s The Beaver Coat. Tammur has staged Liubov’ larovaia (1952), Korneichuk’s The Destruction of the Squadron (1953), Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (1955), Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (1962), and Goethe’s Faust (parts 1–2, 1968–69).

Tammur taught at the Tallinn Conservatory from 1955 to 1960 and at the E. Vilde Pedagogical Institute from 1967 to 1970. Between 1953 and 1969 he was chairman of the Estonian Theatrical Society. Tammur has also appeared in motion pictures. He received the State Prize of the Estonian SSR in 1958 and has also been awarded two orders and several medals.