Mark Prudkin

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.

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).

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.

However, in 1969 Prudkin appeared as father Fedor Karamazov in Bratya Karamazovy (1969), an Academy Award-nominated film by directors Ivan Pyrev, Kirill Lavrov, and Mikhail Ulyanov.

Mark Prudkin received Stalin's Prize three times (1946, 1947, 1949), and was designated People's Actor of the USSR.

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 1927 Prudkin made his film debut as cameo in a silent movie Man from the Restaurant (1927) by director Yakov Protazanov, then appeared as Officer in Sedmoy sputnik (1927). For the next 40 years Prudkin refused to work in movies; he even rejected the offer from Grigoriy Kozintsev to star as King Lear in the famous adaptation of the Shakespeare's play.

In 1924 he was invited by Konstantin Stanislavski to join the company of Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).

From 1924 to 1994 Mark Prudkin was a permanent member of the troupe at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). There his stage partners were such renown Russian actors as Alla Tarasova, Anatoli Ktorov, Olga Androvskaya, Angelina Stepanova, Nikolay Khmelyov, Mikhail Yanshin, Aleksey Gribov, Boris Livanov, Mikhail Kedrov, Viktor Stanitsyn, Anastasiya Georgievskaya, Vasili Toporkov, Mikhail Bolduman, Pavel Massalsky, and the next generation of MKhAT actors - Kira Golovko, Iya Savvina, Alla Pokrovskaya, Anastasiya Voznesenskaya, Irina Miroshnichenko, Oleg Tabakov, Andrey Myagkov, Vladimir Kashpur, Viktor Sergachyov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Stanislav Lyubshin, Sergey Sazontev, Avangard Leontev, Igor Vasilev, and others. Prudkin's acting career spanned 70 years, and he was a member of the board at Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT).

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).

From 1918 - 1924 Prudkin studied acting at 2nd Studio of Moscow Art Theatre.

Mark Prudkin was an actor of Moscow Art Theatre, who refused to work in film for 40 years, believing that acting on stage is a superior form of art. He was born Mark Isaakovich Prudkin on September 14, 1898, in Klin, Russian Empire. His father, Isaac Prudkin, was a tailor in Klin.