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Mark Donskoy

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
1

Gender
Male

Birthday
March 6, 1901 (125 years old)

Place of Birth
Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]

Mark Donskoy

Biography

Mark Semyonovich Donskoy (6 March [O.S. 21 February] 1901 – 21 March 1981) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, and studio administrative head. Donskoy was born in Odessa in a Jewish family. During the Civil War, he served in the Red Army (1921-1923), and was held captive by the White Russians for ten months. After he was freed, he was discharged from military service.

He studied psychology and psychiatry at the Crimean Medical School. In 1925 he graduated from the legal department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Crimean M.V. Frunze University in Simferopol. He worked in investigative bodies, in the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, and in the bar association. He published a collection of short stories drawn from his life called "Prisoners" (1925).

Donskoy began his career in film in 1926. He worked in the script department, but soon advanced as an assistant director in Moscow. Later he worked in Leningrad as an editing assistant. In 1935 he became the first Soviet dubbing director; he dubbed the American film The Invisible Man.

Following this, he directed numerous films. He also worked from time to time as a studio administrator: in 1938–1941, and in 1945-1955 he was the administrative director of Soyuzdetfilm's film studio in Moscow; in 1942-1945 and in 1955-1957 he was director of the Kiev film studio; after 1957, he was director and art director of the Maxim Gorky film studio where he mentored Ousmane Sembène.

His wife was the screenwriter Irina Borisovna Donskaya (1918–1983).

Known For

Directing

1978The Orlovs...Director
1973Nadezhda...Director
1966Mother's Loyalty...Director
1966A Mother's Heart...Director
1962Hello, Children!...Director
1959Foma Gordeyev...Director
1957The Horse That Cried...Director
1956Mother...Director
1949Alitet Leaves for the Hills...Director
1947The Village Teacher...Director
1945The Taras Family...Director
1944Rainbow...Director
1942How the Steel Was Tempered...Director
1942Fighting Film Collection No. 9...Director
1941The Romantics...Director
1940My Universities...Director
1939My Apprenticeship...Director
1938The Childhood of Maxim Gorky...Director
1934Song of Happiness...Director
1929Price of a Man...Director
1927In the Big City...Director

Writing

1978The Orlovs...Screenplay
1959Foma Gordeyev...Writer
1956Mother...Writer
1945The Taras Family...Screenplay
1942How the Steel Was Tempered...Screenplay
1940My Universities...Writer
1939My Apprenticeship...Writer
1938The Childhood of Maxim Gorky...Writer
1927In the Big City...Writer

Production

1940Brother of a Hero...Producer

Editing

1928His Excellency...Editor

Acting

1927Prostituteas Passerby