Russian actors who fled after the Revolution and Civil War and came to Hollywood

[Larry1]

I was watching a Cary Grant movie from the 1940s and heard from one of the characters a distinctive voice I recognized from Hitchcock's film Vertigo.  He had one of those hard-to-identify Central or Eastern European accents that I associate with certain educated, polished characters in films of Hollywood's golden age. If any of you are fans of Vertigo he was the owner of the Argosy bookshop and told the Jimmy Stewart character the background of Carlotta Valdez.

I consulted the internet movie database and found that the same actor played both roles: Konstantin Shayne.  And he was from Kharkov.  He was born in the late 19th century, acted in Russian theater, and fought under Baron Wrangell in the Russian Civil War.  And of course when the whites lost to the reds he fled Russia, along with his sister Tamara.  His life sounds at least as interesting as some of the film characters he has portrayed.

The brother of actress Tamara Shayne, he was to join the Moscow Arts Theatre, but World War I intervened, and then he fought with General Wrangell and the White Armies. Although he received few significant roles, he was outstanding in None But the Lonely Heart (1944) as Ike Weber and in The Stranger (1946) as Gen. Meinike, where his character dominates the first 15 minutes of the film. His performance in Danny Kaye's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) is also highly regarded. His performance in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) was considered outstanding, but was cut from the release print.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790164/bio

Since Shayne doesn't sound like a Russian name I assumed he must have assumed it for films here.  His sister's last name before she changed it was Nikoulin, so that might be the name under which they were born. In "Red Danube" Konstantin Shayne played a Russian émigré professor in post-War Vienna who committed suicide rather than allow the British to repatriate him to the Soviet Union.  His sister Tamara played his wife I the film.

As I was trying to find more information about Shayne's life, especially his leaving Russia, I found that there were quite a number of Hollywood actors who were from various parts of FSU.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_actors_from_Russia

Everyone remembers Yul Brynner who was from Vladivostok, but there were many lesser known actors from the Russian theater who made their way to Hollywood in the early years of the film industry here.

[SANDRO43]

I found that there were quite a number of Hollywood actors who were from various parts of FSU... there were many lesser known actors from the Russian theater who made their way to Hollywood in the early years of the film industry here.

Were they dubbed or did they use their own, accented voices? If the latter, they were probably confined to playing minor character roles.

For a long time Hollywood used British actors for the 'evil, dastardly' roles. To a non-US viewer, it was rather funny listening to the 'baddies' speaking in faultless theatre English while the 'heroes' were often mumbling their lines almost unintelligibly .

[Larry1]

Were they dubbed or did they use their own, accented voices? If the latter, they were probably confined to playing minor character roles.

Almost all the ones I've seen (and realized were Russian actors) used their own voices and weren't dubbed. And, except for Yul Brynner, all played minor roles.  One, Akim Tamaroff, had a strong Russian accent.  He was used to portray various foreign characters from a wide variety of countries, all in his Russian accent.  I think his most famous role was playing the leader of the partisan band fighting Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War in "For Whom The Bell Tolls".

If any Russian native speakers happen to watch "Vertigo" it would be great if you could listen to Konstantin Shayne in the bookstore scene and let us know if his accent seems Russian.  The film is certainly well worth seeing.

Sometimes, of course, they also played Russian characters, as in the wonderful Ernst Lubitsch film "Ninotchka", starring Greta Garbo.  One of the three Soviet trade representatives was played by an actor originally from near Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.  And one of Greta Garbo's roommates in Russia was played by Tamara Shayne (Nikoulin), who was married to Akim Tamaroff.   In case you thought Russian emigres sticking together was a recent phenomenon.