Biography

Maria Mikhailovna Blumenthal-Tamarina (Russian: Мари́я Миха́йловна Блюмента́ль-Тама́рина; née Klimova, born 16 July 1859 – October 16, 1939), was a Soviet and Russian movie and theater actress. She was given the title of People's Artist of the USSR (1936) and was one of the first actresses to receive this honor. She was also recognized as Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (also known as the RSFSR) in 1925 and People's Artist of RSFSR in 1928. She was also named a recipient of the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. Maria Blumenthal-Tamarina's father, Mikhail, was born a serf. Maria graduated in 1875 from the Mariinsky de Saint-Petersburg gymnasium. In 1880, she married a drama teacher and actor named Alexander Eduardovich Blumenthal-Tamarin. Her stage debut was in 1885, when she became part of an amateur theater group. By 1887, she had appeared with a professional troupe in the Alexandre Dumas play Kean at Petrovsky Park in Moscow.

By 1889, she began working in the Mikhail Valentovich Lentovsky Theater Group (Лентовский, Михаил Валентинович). This troupe traveled throughout the Russian Empire between 1890 and 1901, reaching locations such as Tbilisi, Vladikavkaz, Rostov-on-Don, and Kharkiv. Upon returning to Moscow, Blumenthal-Tamarina worked at the Korsh Theatre, the Comedy Theater, the Soukhodolski Theater, and the Maly Drama Theatre (1933–1938). In 1911, she worked on the Boris Tchaikovsky (Чайковский, Борис Витальевич) silent movie The Living Corpse.

Throughout her career, Blumenthal-Tamarina appeared in over 20 films. In 1936, she performed the main role in the movie Seekers of Happiness, which tells the story of a Jewish family that moves to the Jewish colony of Birobidzhan

Maria Blumenthal-Tamarina was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1937.

She died on October 16, 1938, in Moscow. She was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.