Akim Tamiroff
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Akim Tamiroff
Biography
Earthy Russian character actor Akim Tamiroff was relatively aimless, not settling upon a theatrical career until he was nearly 19. Selected from 500 applicants, Tamiroff was trained by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater School. While touring the U.S. with a Russian acting troupe in 1923, Tamiroff decided to remain in New York and give Broadway a try. He was quite active with the Theatre Guild during the 1920s and early '30s, then set out for Hollywood, hoping to scare up movie work. After several years' worth of bit roles, Tamiroff's film career began gaining momentum when he was signed by Paramount in 1936. He became one of the studio's top players, appearing in juicy featured roles in A-pictures and starring in such B's as The Great Gambini (1937), King of Chinatown (1938), and The Magnificent Fraud (1939). Essaying a wide variety of nationalities, Tamiroff was most frequently cast as a villain or reprobate with a deep down sentimental and/or honorable streak. He was a favorite of many directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, starring in Union Pacific (1939), Northwest Mounted Police (1940), and Preston Sturges' The Great McGinty (1940). He was twice nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for his work in The General Died at Dawn (1936) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). During the 1950s, Tamiroff was a close associate of actor/director Orson Welles, who cast Tamiroff in underhanded supporting roles in Mr. Arkadin (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), and The Trial (1963), and retained his services for nearly two decades in the role of Sancho Panza in Welles' never-finished Don Quixote. Akim Tamiroff continued to flourish with meaty assignments in films like Topkapi (1964) and After the Fox (1966), rounding out his long and fruitful career with a starring assignment in the French/Italian political melodrama, Death of a Jew (1970). ~ Hal Erickson, RoviFilmography:
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Akim Tamiroff
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2010) |
| Akim Tamiroff | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for Fiesta (1947). |
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| Born | October 29, 1899 Tiflis, Georgia, Russian Empire |
| Died | September 17, 1972 (aged 72) Palm Springs, California |
| Years active | 1932–1972 |
| Spouse | Tamara Shayne (1932-1972; his death) |
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff (Russian: Аким Михайлович Тамиров; 29 October 1899 – 17 September 1972) was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia), of Armenian ancestry.[1] He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors and decided to stay.[2][3] Tamiroff managed to develop a career in Hollywood despite his thick Russian accent.
Tamiroff's film debut came in 1932 in an uncredited role in Okay, America!. He performed in several more uncredited roles until 1935, when he co-starred in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. The following year, he was cast in the title role in The General Died at Dawn, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He appeared in the 1937 musical High, Wide, and Handsome and the 1938 proto-noir Dangerous to Know opposite Anna May Wong, frequently singled out as his best role.
In the following decade, he appeared in such films as The Buccaneer (1938), The Great McGinty (1940), The Corsican Brothers (1941), Tortilla Flat (1942), Five Graves to Cairo (1943), His Butler's Sister (1943), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), for which he received another Oscar nomination, and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944). In later years, Tamiroff appeared in Ocean's 11 (1960), Topkapi (1964), Alphaville (1965) and had a long collaboration with Orson Welles including Touch of Evil (1958), Mr Arkadin (1955), The Trial (1962) and Welles' unfinished version of Don Quixote, in which he played Sancho Panza.
While Tamiroff may not be a household name now, his malapropistic performance as the boss in The Great McGinty inspired the cartoon character Boris Badenov, the male half of the villainous husband-and-wife team Boris and Natasha on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. He was also spoofed in a 1969 episode of the TV show H.R. Pufnstuf entitled "The Stand-in" in which a frog named "Akim Toadanoff" directs a movie on Living Island.
Tamiroff died on September 17, 1972 from cancer. He was mentioned in J. D. Salinger's "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" (1942 New Yorker) He is also mentioned in The Moviegoer , Walker Percy's novel of 1961.
Filmography
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Akim Tamiroff |
- Akim Tamiroff at the Internet Movie Database
- Akim Tamiroff at WFMU
- Akim Tamiroff at the TCM Movie Database
- Akim Tamiroff at the Internet Broadway Database
- Akim Tamiroff at Katz's Film Encyclopedia
- Akim Tamiroff at Great Character Actors
- Akim Tamiroff at Find a Grave
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Mentioned in
Le Baccanti
(1963 Romance Film)
The Vulture
(1967 Science Fiction Film)
Sabra
(1970 Action Film)
The Widow
(1955 Drama Film)
Par un Beau Matin d'été
(1965 Crime Film)
» More