Biografia
Yuri Zavadsky was a distinguished theatrical actor and director based in Moscow, Soviet Union.
Born Yuri Aleksandrovich Zavadsky on June 30, 1894, in Moscow, Russian Empire (now Russia), he graduated in 1915 from the Acting Studio of Evgeni Vakhtangov in Moscow and subsequently worked with Vakhtangov's Theatre until 1923. Between 1924 and 1931, he was a member of the Moscow Art Theatre, where he portrayed roles such as Chatsky in Aleksandr Griboyedov's "Woe from Wit" and Count Almaviva in "The Marriage of Figaro." From 1932 to 1935, he served as artistic director of the Central Theatre of the Red Army in Moscow, and from 1936 to 1940, he held the same position at the Gorky Theatre in Rostov-na-Donu.
From 1940 until 1977, Zavadsky was artistic director of the Theatre of Mossovet in Moscow. There, he directed numerous patriotic and official Soviet plays, including Konstantin Trenev's "Lyubov Yarovaya," L. Leonov's "Nashestvie," and Mikhail Svetlov's "The Brandenburg Gates." He also staged several classical works such as Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Othello." At the Theatre of Mossovet, he collaborated with a remarkable ensemble of actors, including Faina Ranevskaya, Vera Maretskaya, Valentina Talyzina, Margarita Terekhova, Olga Ostroumova, Larisa Kuznetsova, Rostislav Plyatt, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Leonid Markov, Georgiy Taratorkin, Gennadi Bortnikov, Evgeniy Steblov, and other prominent Russian performers.
Zavadsky was honored as People's Artist of the USSR in 1948 and received the Stalin Prize twice, in 1946 and 1951. In 1965, he was awarded the Lenin Prize for his production of "The Masquerade," a classic play by Yuri Lermontov. He was decorated with the Order of Lenin three times and earned numerous other Soviet state awards. Married to actress Vera Maretskaya, Yuri Zavadsky passed away from heart failure on April 1, 1977, in Moscow. He was buried at Vagankovskoe Cemetery in Moscow.
