On October 25, a postcard with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 125th Birth Anniversary of Mikhail Zharov, an actor, a director, a People's Artist of the USSR, a Hero of Socialist Labor, was put into postal circulation

Mikhail Zharov (1899-1981) was an actor and a director of theater and cinema, a screenwriter. He was a Hero of Socialist Labor (1974), an Honored Artist of the Republic (1935), a People's Artist of the RSFSR (1944), a People's Artist of the USSR (1949), and a Winner of three Stalin Prizes.

Mikhail Zharov was born on October 15 (27), 1899, in Moscow. From 1915, he worked as an administrator and assistant director in the Zimin Opera Theater troupe. In 1918, he entered the studio at the Theatre of the Art-Educational Union of Workers' Organizations. In the same year, he made his stage debut, playing the Jester in Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. In 1926-1927 and 1929, he played in the Baku Workers' Theater, in 1928 - in the Kazan Bolshoi Drama Theater, and in 1930 - in the Realistic Theater. In 1931, he made a switchover to the Chamber Theater, where he worked until 1938.

From 1938 to the end of his life, he worked as an actor of the Maly Theater where he played mainly roles of classical repertoire, and besides, served as a director of theatrical performances. For many years, he was a public director of the Central House of the Actor named after A.A. Yablochkina.

His debut episodic role in the film was that of an oprichnik in the Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible (1915). Zharov played his first big role of Red Army soldier Egor in 1925 in film The Road to Happiness, and in 1931, one of his most known roles, of bandit Zhigan in the first artistic sound film of the USSR - Start in life by N. Ekk. In the films of G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg The Return of Maxim (1937) and The Vyborg Side (1938), he played the role of bumbling office clerk Dymba. In I. Annensky’s films, he played several roles from the literary works by A. Chekhov: thundering, glowing with health landowner Smirnov in vaudeville The Bear (1938), cheerful teacher Kovalenko in the comedy Man in a Case (1939) and carelessly leading a fast life landowner Artynov in drama Anna on the Neck (1954). During the war years, he played dashing Cossack Perchikhin in the historical-revolutionary epic film of the Vasilyev brothers Defense of Tsaritsyn (1942) and Malyuta Skuratov in historical drama Ivan the Terrible (1944) by S. Eisenstein. After the war, he made his debut as a film director with war comedy Restless Outfit (1946). In total, he played in more than 60 films.

The commemorative stamp provides a portrait of Mikhail Zharov; the main illustration features a still from film The Bear (1938), Belgoskino.

In addition to the issue of the postcard with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced a special cancel for Moscow.


Design Artist: V. Khablovsky.
Quantity: 4 thousand postcards.

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