Vladimir Sokoloff

For the pianist, see Vladimir Sokoloff (pianist).

Vladimir Sokoloff
Владимир Соколов
Vladimir Sokoloff in Scarlet Street (1945)
Born	Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokoloff (1889-12-26)December 26, 1889 Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	February 15, 1962(1962-02-15) (aged 72) West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Other names	Wladimir Sokoloff Waldemar Sokoloff Wladimir Sokolow
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1926–1962
Spouse	Elizabeth Alexanderoff ​ ​ (m. 1922; died 1948)​

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sokoloff (Russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Соколо́в; December 26, 1889 – February 15, 1962) was a Russian actor of stage and screen. After studying theatre in Moscow, he began his professional film career in Germany and France during the Silent era, before emigrating to the United States in the 1930s. He appeared in over 100 films and television series, often playing supporting characters of various nationalities and ethnicities.

Early life and education

Sokoloff was born in Moscow, Russian Empire, to a German Jewish family. He was raised bilingual, speaking both Russian and German. He studied theatre in Moscow, first at the Moscow State University and later at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 1913. At one point a pupil of Constantin Stanislavski, he would later reject Method acting (as well as all other acting theories).

Career

Upon graduation, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre as an actor and assistant director. Later in the decade, he joined the Kamerny Theatre. In the early 1923, he toured with his troupe in Germany, where he met theatre director and producer Max Reinhardt, who invited him to stay in Berlin. He appeared in numerous stage productions, and began acting in German and Austrian films, including The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), The Ship of Lost Souls (1929), Farewell (1930), and Darling of the Gods (1930).

With the rise of Nazism, the Jewish Sokoloff moved first to Paris in 1932, where he continued to act on stage and screen. In 1937, he emigrated to the United States. Although he spoke very little English at the time of his arrival, his first stage role there was a lead in Georg Büchner's play Danton's Death, under the direction of Orson Welles.

That same year, he had his English-language breakthrough starring in fellow expat William Dieterle's The Life of Emile Zola, portraying Paul Cézanne. He appeared in a number of Broadway plays from 1937 to 1950. He also quickly found work in American films, playing characters of a wide variety of nationalities (he himself once estimated 35), for example, Filipino (Back to Bataan), French (Passage to Marseille), Greek (Mr. Lucky), Arab (Road to Morocco), Romanian (I Was a Teenage Werewolf), and Chinese (Macao). Among his better known parts are the Spanish guerrilla Anselmo in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) and the Mexican Old Man in The Magnificent Seven.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he also appeared on a number of television series, including three episodes of CBS's The Twilight Zone ("Dust", "The Gift" and "The Mirror"). On January 1, 1961, Sokoloff guest starred as "Old Stefano", a wise shepherd, in the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman, with John Russell and Peter Brown. He also appeared on one episode of The Untouchables entitled "Troubleshooter".

His final roles were in Escape from Zahrain and Taras Bulba, both of which starred Yul Brynner. Both films were released posthumously.

Death

After a long career, he died of a stroke in 1962 in Hollywood, California.

Partial stage credits

Run	Title	Role	Theatre	Refs.
12/07/27 - 12/31/27	Jedermann	Death / The Devil	Century Theatre
12/20/27 - 01/01/27	Dantons Tod	Maximilien Robespierre
01/02/28 - 01/31/28	Peripherie	Judge	Cosmopolitan Theatre
11/02/38 - 11/19/38	Danton's Death	Maximilien Robespierre	Mercury Theatre
02/05/42 - 02/07/42	The Flowers of Virtue	Gen. Orijas	Royale Theatre
12/22/47 - 01/24/48	Crime and Punishment	Porfiry Petrovitch	National Theatre
12/27/48 - 01/07/50	The Madwoman of Chaillot	The Prospector	Royale Theatre

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1926	Uneasy Money	Rag Collector
1927	Out of the Mist	Poleto
	The Love of Jeanne Ney	Zacharkiewicz
1928	The White Sonata	Dinas Vater
1929	Sensation im Wintergarten	Berry
	The Ship of Lost Souls	Grischa
	Katharina Knie	Julius
1930	Westfront 1918	Meal Orderly	Uncredited
	Morals at Midnight	The Overseer
	Farewell	The Baron
	Darling of the Gods	Boris Jussupoff
	The Flute Concert of Sanssouci	Russian Envoy
1931	Kismet
	The Threepenny Opera	Smith, the Jailer
	L'opéra de quat'sous
	The Sacred Flame
	Hell on Earth	Lewin
1932	L'Atlantide	Graf Bielowski
	Teilnehmer antwortet nicht	Zeichner Body
	Strafsache von Geldern
	Haunted People
1933	Don Quichotte	Gypsy King
	Don Quixote	Servant	Uncredited
	On the Streets	Father Schlamp
	High and Low	Monsieur Berger
1934	Lake of Ladies	Baron Dobbersberg
	Count Woronzeff	Petroff
1935	Le secret des Woronzeff
	Napoléon Bonaparte	Trista Fleuri
1936	Mayerling	The Chief of Police
	Under Western Eyes	Rector
	Compliments of Mister Flow	Merlow
	The Lower Depths	Kostylev
1937	The Life of Emile Zola	Paul Cézanne
	Alcatraz Island	The Flying Dutchman
	Conquest	Dying Soldier
	West of Shanghai	Chow Fu-Shan
	Expensive Husbands	Andrew Brenner
	Beg, Borrow or Steal	Sascha
	Tovarich		Scenes deleted
1938	Arsène Lupin Returns	Ivan Pavloff
	Blockade	Basil
	The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse	Popus
	Spawn of the North	Dimitri
	Ride a Crooked Mile	Glinka
1939	Juarez	Camilo
	Sons of Liberty	Jacob	Short; uncredited
	The Real Glory	The Datu
1940	Comrade X	Michael Bastakoff
1941	Love Crazy	Dr. Klugle
1942	Crossroads	Carlos Le Duc	Uncredited
	Road to Morocco	Hyder Khan
1943	Mission to Moscow	President Mikhail Kalinin
	Mr. Lucky	Greek Priest	Uncredited
	For Whom the Bell Tolls	Anselmo
1944	Song of Russia	Alexander Meschkov
	Passage to Marseille	Grandpère
	Till We Meet Again	Cabeau
	The Conspirators	Miguel
1945	A Royal Scandal	Malakoff
	Back to Bataan	Señor Buenaventura J. Bello
	Paris Underground	Undertaker
	Scarlet Street	Pop LeJon
1946	Two Smart People	Monsieur Jacques Dufour
	A Scandal in Paris	Uncle Hugo
	Cloak and Dagger	Polda
1948	To the Ends of the Earth	Commissioner Lum Chi Chow
1950	The Baron of Arizona	Pepito
1952	Macao	Kwan Sum Tang
1956	While the City Sleeps	George "Pop" Pilski
1957	Istanbul	Aziz Rakim
	Monster from Green Hell	Dr. Lorentz
	I Was a Teenage Werewolf	Pepe the Janitor
	Sabu and the Magic Ring	Old Fakir
1958	Twilight for the Gods	Feodor Morris
1960	Man on a String	Sergei Mitrov
	Beyond the Time Barrier	The Supreme
	The Magnificent Seven	The Old Man
	Cimarron	Jacob Krubeckoff
1961	Mr. Sardonicus	Henryk Toleslawski
1962	Escape from Zahrain	Abdul	Uncredited; posthumous release
	Taras Bulba	Old Stepan	Posthumous release

Television credits

Year	Title	Role	Episodes
1955	Crusader	Grandfather	"The Bargain"
1956	The Millionaire	Uncle Jacques Monet	"The Story of Lucky Swanson"
1957	Wire Service	Prime Minister	"No Peace in Lo Dao" / "A Matter of Conscience"
	Cavalcade of America	Jake Bartosh	"The Last Signer"
	Suspicion	Enrique Bartolo	"The Flight"
	Have Gun – Will Travel	Gourken	"Helen of Abajinian"
1957-1959	Playhouse 90	Bartok / Anselmo	"For I Have Loved Strangers" / "For Whom the Bell Tolls", parts 1 and 2
1958	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Uncle Fernaud	Season 3 Episode 22: "The Return of the Hero"
	Father Knows Best	Man	"The Great Experiment"
1959	Peter Gunn	Victor Majeski	"Edge of the Night"
	Johnny Staccato	Father Keeley	"Nature of the Night"
	Sunday Showcase	Dr. Alexis Rostov	"Murder and the Android"
1960	Five Fingers	Peter Vestos	"The Judas Goat"
	Tightrope!	Emile Kovacs	"Cold Ice"
	The Alaskans	Chanook	"Peril at Caribou Crossing"
	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Alf	"Knife of Hate"
	Lawman	Old Stefano	"Old Stefano"
1960-1961	The Untouchables	Stanley Tannenbaum / Sam	"The Tommy Karpeles Story" / "The Troubleshooter"
1961	The Law and Mr. Jones	Dr. Harding	"Lethal Weapons"
	Hennesey	Papa Bronsky	"Max Remembers Papa"
	Maverick	Pedro Rubio	"The Forbidden City"
	The Donna Reed Show	Dr. Steinhaus	"Donna's Helping Hand"
	Death Valley Days	Tarabal	"The Stolen City"
	Adventures in Paradise	Sada	"Adam San"
	Harrigan and Son	Kowalski	"The Legacy"
	Wagon Train	Felipe	"The Don Alvarado Story"
	The Rifleman	Abuelito	"The Vaqueros"
	Whispering Smith	Father Antonio	"Prayer of a Chance"
	Checkmate	Pedro Moreno	"Juan Moreno's Body"
1961-1962	Thriller	Papa Glockstein / The Janitor	"The Terror in Teakwood" / "Flowers of Evil"
	The Twilight Zone	Gallegos / Father Tomas / Guitarist	"Dust" / "The Mirror" / "The Gift"
1962	The Dick Powell Show	Marco	"Death in a Village"
	Hawaiian Eye	Dr. Anton Miklos	"The Missile Rogues"

External links

• Vladimir Sokoloff at IMDb 
• Vladimir Sokoloff at the Internet Broadway Database
• Vladimir Sokoloff at AllMovie
• Vladimir Sokoloff at Find a Grave