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Eduards SmilgisLatvian theater director
Date of Birth: 22.11.1886
Country:  Latvia |
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Biography of Eduards Smiļģis
Eduards Smiļģis was a Latvian theater director and Soviet Latvian actor. He was born on November 10 (22), 1886 (according to other sources - November 23) in Riga (now in Latvia).
Acting Career
Smiļģis began his acting career in 1906, performing in semi-professional plays. In 1911, he became an actor at the New Riga Theater, and from 1915 to 1919, he was part of the New Latvian Theater in Petrograd. During this time, some members of the theater joined the 6th Latvian Rifle Regiment, where Smiļģis participated in the creation of a theater called the Communist Theater.
Theater "Dailies"
From 1920 to 1964, Smiļģis was one of the organizers, an actor, the first chief director, and the artistic director of the Theater "Dailies" (from 1940, with a break during the war, it was renamed the J. Rainis Art Theater of the Latvian SSR) in Riga. His productions were characterized by monumentality, heroic-romantic direction, clarity of stage interpretation, and vivid theatricality.
Awards and Honors
Eduards Smiļģis passed away on April 19, 1966, in Riga. He was buried in the Rainis Cemetery (according to other sources - in the Forest Cemetery).
Throughout his career, Smiļģis received numerous awards and honors, including:
- Order of the Three Stars, 4th and 3rd degrees (1937)
- People's Artist of the Latvian SSR (1947)
- People's Artist of the USSR (1948)
- Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (1947) for the production of the play "Fire and Night" by J. Rainis
- Order of Lenin (1947)
- Two orders of the Red Banner of Labor (including one in 1956)
- Order of the "Sign of Honor" (1946)
- Medals.
