Ossip Runitch
Ossip Runitch () was a Russian-Jewish silent film actor, producer and stage director.
Also known as Ossip Runitsch, Osip Runich and Giuseppe Runitsch
Contents
Biography
Born Ossip Iliych Runitsch (Russian: Осип Ильич Рунич) in Russia in 1889, he became a star of Russian silent cinema in the period 1915-1919, appearing in a number of silent films including Molchi, grust... molchi ("Be silent, sorrow ... be silent") and Posledneiye tango with other film stars as Vera Kholodnaya, Vitold Polonsky and Pyotr Chardynin.
Runitsch was a long time admirer of his co-star Kholodnaya and after her death in 1919 during Russian Civil War, he fled Russia and left for Italy where he took part in a number of films. Later, he moved to Germany where he starred together with Emil Jannings and other famous German actors.
In 1925 he married Nina Pavlishcheva, a courtier ballet dancer.
By the late 1930s, he was living in Riga, Latvia,where he played in the troupe of Russian Drama Theatre. Apparently, when he realised that the World War II was inevitable, he accepted an invitation to tour South Africa from his local Jewish friends. He stayed in South Africa and became a founder of one of the first professional theatre companies in a country. Besides, he produced operas for the State Theatre in mid-1940s.
Died in 1947.
He passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa on 6 April 1947.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He was among the pioneers of professional Yiddish theatre in South Africa and one of the country's first professional opera producers.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossip_Runitsch
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