Early years Michael Chekhov was born in
Saint Petersburg, the son of
Alexander Chekhov (the elder brother of
Anton Chekhov) and his wife Natalya Aleksandrovna Golden. It was his father's second marriage. His mother, a Russian Jew, had been the governess to the children from his father's first marriage. He was raised in a middle-class family; his father was in the Imperial Customs Service and was a moderately successful writer. Chekhov's first wife was actress
Olga Chekhova, whom he met at the
Moscow Art Theatre First Studio. Olga Chekhova was a daughter of Konstantin Knipper and was the niece of
Olga Knipper,
Anton Chekhov's wife, after whom she was named. Their daughter, also baptized Olga, was born in 1916 and became a German actress under the name
Ada Tschechowa. His second wife was Xenia Karlovna Ziller, of German origins. Chekhov studied under the Russian
theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski at the First Studio, where he acted, directed, and studied
Stanislavski's 'system'. He was also influenced in his creative development as an actor by
Yevgeny Vakhtangov and
Leopold Sulerzhitsky. In 1922, after the death of
Vakhtangov, Chekhov became director of the First Studio, which was subsequently renamed Moscow Art Theatre II. In the late 1920s, Chekhov emigrated to
Germany and set up his own studio, teaching a physical and imagination-based system of actor training. He developed the use of the "Psychological Gesture", a concept derived from the
Symbolist theories of Bely. In this technique, the actor physicalizes a character's need or internal dynamic in the form of an external gesture. Subsequently, the outward gesture is suppressed and incorporated internally, allowing the physical memory to inform the performance on an unconscious level. Between 1930 and 1935 he worked in
Kaunas State Drama Theatre in
Lithuania. Between 1936 and 1939 Chekhov established The Chekhov Theatre School at
Dartington Hall, in
Devon,
England. Following developments in Germany that threatened the outbreak of war he moved to the US with the couple, and later writers,
Anne Cumming and Henry Lyon Young to recreate a drama school.
Career Following Stanislavski's approach, much of what Chekhov explored addressed the question of how to access the unconscious creative self through indirect non-analytical means. Chekhov taught a range of movement dynamics such as molding, floating, flying, and radiating that actors use to find the physical core of a
character. Despite his seemingly external approach, Chekhov's techniques were meant to lead the actor to a rich internal life. In spite of his brilliance as an actor and his first-hand experience in the development of Stanislavski's groundbreaking work, Chekhov as a teacher was overshadowed by his American counterparts in the 1940s and 1950s and their interpretations of Stanislavski's 'system,' which became known as
Method acting. Interest in Chekhov's work has grown, however, with a new generation of teachers. Chekhov's own students included
Marilyn Monroe,
Anthony Quinn,
Clint Eastwood,
Dorothy Dandridge,
Mala Powers,
Yul Brynner,
Patricia Neal,
Sterling Hayden,
Jack Palance,
Elia Kazan,
Robert Lewis,
Paula Strasberg,
Guy Gillette, and
Lloyd and
Dorothy Bridges. In the television programme
Inside the Actors Studio, noted actors such as
Johnny Depp and
Anthony Hopkins have cited Chekhov's book as highly influential on their acting.
Beatrice Straight also thanked Chekhov in her acceptance speech after winning her
Oscar for her performance in
Network (1976). Chekhov's description of his acting technique,
On the Technique of Acting, was written in 1942. When reissued in 1991 it had additional material by Chekhov estate executor
Mala Powers; an abridged version appeared under the title
To the Actor in 1953, with a preface by
Yul Brynner, and reissued in 2002 with an additional foreword by
Simon Callow and additional Russian material translated and commented on by Andrei Malaev-Babel, a notable Russian-born acting scholar and teacher. The English translation of his autobiography
The Path of the Actor was edited by Andrei Kirillov and Bella Merlin and published by Routledge in 2005, marking the 50th anniversary of his death. Some of Chekhov's lectures are available on CD under the title
On Theatre and the Art of Acting. The documentary
From Russia to Hollywood: the 100 Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff, profiles Chekhov and his fellow Russian associate George Shdanoff; released in 1998, it is narrated by
Mala Powers and
Gregory Peck, who starred in
Alfred Hitchcock's
Spellbound, for which Chekhov earned an Oscar nomination. ==Performances and works==