Akim Tamiroff — actor with roots in the Russian Empire
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was born Hovakim Tamiryants on 29 October 1899 (some lists give 27 October) into an Armenian family in the Russian Empire. His birthplace is uncertain: most sources give Tiflis, now Tbilisi in Georgia, while others give Baku, now in Azerbaijan; both cities were then part of the Empire. He trained at the drama school of the Moscow Art Theatre, where he adopted the Russian form of his name.
In 1923 he came to the United States on a tour with a troupe of Moscow Art Theatre actors. Accounts differ on whether he stayed then or settled after a second visit with the company in 1929. In New York he worked with the Theatre Guild, and despite a strong accent made his way into films, beginning with an uncredited part in Okay, America! (1932). In 1936 he signed with Paramount, which cast him in the title role of Lewis Milestone's The General Died at Dawn (1936), bringing him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor.
Over the next decade he was one of Hollywood's busiest character actors, in films such 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) and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), often cast as generals and bandits. For his performance as the guerrilla leader Pablo in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) he received a second Academy Award nomination and won the first Golden Globe ever given for best supporting actor.
From the 1950s he worked increasingly in Europe and with Orson Welles, who cast him in Mr. Arkadin (1955), Touch of Evil (1958) and The Trial (1962). He also appeared in Anatole Litvak's Anastasia (1956), Milestone's Ocean's Eleven (1960), Topkapi (1964), Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965), Lord Jim (1965) and After the Fox (1966), and continued working until the end of the decade, with Marquis de Sade: Justine (1969) among his last films. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 1634 Vine Street.
He died in Palm Springs, California, on 17 September 1972, aged seventy-two.
"Came to the United States in 1923 on a tour with a Moscow Art Theatre troupe; settled there either then or after a second visit in 1929."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia) or Baku (now Azerbaijan) — sources differ
Born Hovakim Tamiryants in 1899 into an Armenian family in Tiflis or Baku, both then in the Russian Empire, he trained at the Moscow Art Theatre's school and came to the United States with a touring troupe in 1923.
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Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia) or Baku (now Azerbaijan) — sources differ. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.