Biografia

He was one of the first pop stars in Russian Empire and was in love with the silent film actress Vera Kholodnaya who died at 25 during Russian Civil War.

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.

When he realized 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.