|
Akim Tamiroff
Biography:
Though born in Russian territory, Akim Tamiroff was of Armenian extraction. At 19 he finally decided to pursue acting and was chosen from among 500 applicants to the Moscow Art Theater School. There he studied under the great Konstantin Stanislavski, and launched into a stage career. This included road company productions, and as part of one in 1923 Tamiroff came to New York and decided to stay. Broadway well suited him, and he worked steadily with the Theatre Guild from the mid 1920s to early 1930s. He... more
Though born in Russian territory, Akim Tamiroff was of Armenian extraction. At 19 he finally decided to pursue acting and was chosen from among 500 applicants to the Moscow Art Theater School. There he studied under the great Konstantin Stanislavski, and launched into a stage career. This included road company productions, and as part of one in 1923 Tamiroff came to New York and decided to stay. Broadway well suited him, and he worked steadily with the Theatre Guild from the mid 1920s to early 1930s. He was a short, stout man with a guttural baritone voice and a thick but rather generic Russian accent that with his skill in characterizations seemed to mesh with any role calling for any foreign type - whether European Middle eastern, or Asian. His voice became his principal asset. He came west to Hollywood in 1932 to break into the movie business. In that year he had his first bit part in Okay, America! (1932). Until 1934 his pieces were usually uncredited, but he managed to standout, one of his best being the servant Pedro of 'John Gilbert' in Queen Christina (1933). By early 1934 he was in demand-twelve movies that year. Into 1935 - with a busy fifteen film roles in total - he was getting more feature supporting roles, as varied as, Gopal the emir in Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) to the comic puppet master Rudolpho in the adapted operetta Naughty Marietta (1935). He signed with Paramount in 1936 but was a poplar loan-out to other studios. He went to Warner Bros. for one of his earliest big supporting characters: the sly Cuban mercantile agent, Carlo Cibo, in Anthony Adverse (1936). For Paramount, his General Yang in The General Died at Dawn (1936) brought him his first of two nominations as Best Supporting Actor. Along with substantial supporting roles in top movies, Tamiroff was staring in B vehicles, allowing him to feature as a whole range of amiable rogues and threatening heavies. Two supporting roles were apt examples of his range. As the French trapper and scout Dan Duroc of North West Mounted Police (1940), he was something of a scoundrel but emanating a sense of fair play and dignity. As the vile Colonna in The Corsican Brothers (1941), he is irredeemably wicked-and deservedly dies in the longest sword duel on film. For his role as the self-serving guerrilla Pablo in For Whom the Bells Tolls (1943), Tamiroff received his second Oscar nomination. He continued through the decade with more fine work, and in 1949 he joined the cast of Black Magic (1949) and met Orson Welles, who played late 18th century charlatan Cagliostro. The two became friends and associates in Welles' later film projects. Through the 1950s Tamiroff's time was fairly divided between the opportunities for TV playhouse productions and film earlier in the decade and a surprising range of episodic TV and more films later. His three films with Welles, as director and sometime actor, were: Mr. Arkadin (1955) with its Wellesian maze of flashbacks; the over-the-top Touch of Evil (1958) with its gritty surrealism and incredible cast; and Le procès (1962) (The Trial), Welles' stylistic spin on the Kafka story. Certainly, it was in 'Evil' (the best of the lot) that Tamiroff's Tijuana boss Uncle Joe Grandi-outlandishly bugged-eyed alternately with fear or mercurial anger intensified by Welles' wild camera angles-stood out as a most intriguing character. He took a last fling at Broadway in 1959. For the 1960s Tamiroff continued to sample American TV but was still very active in American, French, and Italian movies. His voice and talent were still a draw in films like: Topkapi (1964) and Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965). And he remained on call for Welles' meandering/unfinished Don Quijote de Orson Welles (1992) as Sancho Panza for nearly twenty years. One of the great character actors of film history, Akim Tamiroff appeared in over 150 screen projects.
|
