Motion Picture and Theatre Director. Born Ryszard Srzednicki Boleslawsky in Warsaw, he made his stage debut as an actor in Odessa, Russia, at age 16. He studied at the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavsky and was later named director of its First Studio. Boleslawski initially supported the 1917 Russian Revolution and directed an early Soviet propaganda film, "Bread" (1918), but when the Red Army invaded Poland in 1920 he returned to his homeland to fight against his former comrades. He celebrated their defeat in another documentary, "Miracle of the Vistula" (1920). The mid-1920s found him in New York, where he directed several Broadway productions, and he arrived in Hollywood at the dawn of talkies. He is probably best known for "Rasputin and the Empress" (1933), the only film in which the three famous Barrymores (Lionel, Ethel, and John) appeared together. His other credits include "Men in White" (1933), "Les Miserables" (1935), "Clive of India" (1935), "Theodora Goes Wild" (1936), and "The Garden of Allah" (1936). He died suddenly of a heart attack at 47, during production of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1937). Boleslawski was essentially an actor's director who adapted himself with elegance and efficiency to the Hollywood studio system. His most adventurous work was done on the stage, where the American Laboratory Theatre he co-founded (with Maria Ouspenskaya) exerted a great influence on the Actors Studio school. He also wrote "Acting: The First Six Lessons" (1933), one of the first English-language analyses of the Stanislavsky method. The text is still used today.
Motion Picture and Theatre Director. Born Ryszard Srzednicki Boleslawsky in Warsaw, he made his stage debut as an actor in Odessa, Russia, at age 16. He studied at the Moscow Art Theatre under Konstantin Stanislavsky and was later named director of its First Studio. Boleslawski initially supported the 1917 Russian Revolution and directed an early Soviet propaganda film, "Bread" (1918), but when the Red Army invaded Poland in 1920 he returned to his homeland to fight against his former comrades. He celebrated their defeat in another documentary, "Miracle of the Vistula" (1920). The mid-1920s found him in New York, where he directed several Broadway productions, and he arrived in Hollywood at the dawn of talkies. He is probably best known for "Rasputin and the Empress" (1933), the only film in which the three famous Barrymores (Lionel, Ethel, and John) appeared together. His other credits include "Men in White" (1933), "Les Miserables" (1935), "Clive of India" (1935), "Theodora Goes Wild" (1936), and "The Garden of Allah" (1936). He died suddenly of a heart attack at 47, during production of "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney" (1937). Boleslawski was essentially an actor's director who adapted himself with elegance and efficiency to the Hollywood studio system. His most adventurous work was done on the stage, where the American Laboratory Theatre he co-founded (with Maria Ouspenskaya) exerted a great influence on the Actors Studio school. He also wrote "Acting: The First Six Lessons" (1933), one of the first English-language analyses of the Stanislavsky method. The text is still used today.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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