The preeminent Russian actor, at least in Western eyes, of the firsthalf of the twentieth century. He became interested in the theatre as ateenager and joined the Teatr Mariinskij as a stagehand in 1918. Heapprenticed with various traveling companies and therein learnedballet, pantomime, and acrobatics. He studied at the St. Petersburg(Leningrad) Theater Institute and made his stage debut in 1926. Thefollowing year, he entered films and his commanding presence soonbrought him leading roles and enormous acclaim, as well as theapprobation of the Soviet leadership, which elected him a deputy of theSupreme Soviet. His greatest fame world-wide came with his work in thefilms ofSergei Eisenstein. Following the masterpieces _Aleksandr Nevsky (1938)_ and _Ivan Groznyj I (1945)_ he wasnamed to the Order of Lenin and made People's Artist of the USSR,respectively. He died in 1966. He should not be confused with the actorNikolay P. Cherkasov who starred in many Russian films.