One of the most popular actors on the Russian stage, Robert Adelheim, is dead here. He was run over by an automobile. He was 74 years old.
Robert and his brother Raphael were on the stage together for nearly half a century. They devoted themselves exclusively to classic plays.
During his career Robert played the title roles in “Hamlet” and “Othello” and had starring roles in dramas by the great masters from the days of ancient Greece onward.
WIDELY-KNOWN THESPIANS
The brothers made it their aim to bring the highest theatrical art to the masses. There was no place, however small, in either the Russia of the Czars or of the present Soviet Union, where the Adelheims were not known.
In addition to their theatres in Moscow and St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), they toured the cities, towns and villages in every corner of the country.
GIVEN HIGHEST HONORS
At the time of the revolution they played for the Red Army at the front, and in the factories. To the last day Robert was on the boards for the Labor Clubs in Moscow.
On the forty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of his career, both brothers were awarded the title of “People’s Artist in the Soviet Republic,” the highest title open to Russian artists under Communist rule.
The Adelheims were members of an assimilated Jewish family which embraced Christianity. Educated in Germany, Robert and his brother held radical views from their youth. Neither of them had much contact with Jews. They showed no Jewish interests.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
