Mozzhukhin, Ivan |
| ACTOR, DIRECTOR (RUSSIA) |
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BORN 8 Oct 1889, Kondol, Penza - DIED 18 Jan 1939, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine CAUSE OF DEATH tuberculosis GRAVE LOCATION Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne: Cimetière russe de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, rue Léo Lagrange (Tomb 3299, plan II) |
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Ivan Mozzhukhin studied Law in Moscow, but in 1910 he joined a group of travelling actors from Kiev. In 1911 he returned to Moscow and had his first move part in "Kreitzerova sonata" ("The Kreutzer Sonata"). He was in many Russian movies and he married the actress Nathalie Lissenko (he would later divorce her). In 1919 they fled for the Communist Revolution to Paris, where he became one of the leading movie stars. Mozzhukhin often wrote the scripts for the movies in which he performed. The two surrealistic movies he directed himself during the early twenties were hardly understood by the public. In 1926 Universal Pictures offered him a contract for five years and he left for Hollywood. After his forst hollywood movie "Surrender" (1927) was killed by the press the contract was voided and he returned to Europe. He played in a few German movies, but when the era of the silent movies ended his accent stood in the way of a further career. During his last years he was lonely and addicted to alcohol. He was just under or over fifty years old when he died in Neuilly-sur-Seine (all sources stated that he was born in 1889, but his tombstone is inscribed with 1887). His former home in Kondol is now a museum dedicated to him. |
| Images | |
 The grave of Ivan Mozzhukhin at the Cimetière Russe, Ste.-Geneviève-des-Bois. Picture by Androom (18 Nov 2006) |
 Ivan Mozzhukhin. (1930-1931) |
Sources • Ivan Mosjoukine - Wikipedia (EN) |
