Zinovy Gerdt (Zalman Hrapinovich) - biography

Zinovy Efimovich Gerdt (Russian: Зиновий Ефимович Гердт; 21 September 1916, Sebezh, Russian Empire –18 November 1996) was a Soviet/Russian theate and cinema actor, recognized with the title People's Artist of the USSR.

Biography

At 15, Gerdt graduated from a vocational school affiliated with the Valerian Kuybyshev Electrical Plant. He started working on Metrostroy as a metalworker-electrician. As a hobby, he was an actor the factory's "TRAM" club. In 1937 he began acting at the Puppet Theatre of Moscow House of Pioneers.

Gerdt volunteered to the front when Second World War began. He was enlisted as a senior lieutenant of a field engineering division and suffered a serious leg wound near Belgorod in February 1943.

In 1945 - 1982 worked at the Obraztsov Central Puppet Theatre in Moscow. In cinematography, he was primarily a voice actor/narrator and was behind the scenes for a long time.

From 1983 onward, Gerdt worked as an actor at Ermolova Theatre. A sculpture picturing Panikovsky, a character of The Little Golden Calf, as played by Gerdt, stands in Kiev.