Mikhoels (real surname Vovsi) Solomon (Shlomo) Mikhailovich (1890, Dinaburg — 1948, Minsk) — actor, director, public figure.

Solomon Mikhoels received a traditional Jewish religious education. In 1911 he entered the Kyiv Commercial Institute, from which he was expelled for participation in student unrest. From 1915 to 1918 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Petrograd University. In 1918 he joined the Jewish Theatrical Studio of A. M. Granovsky, and in 1919 he made his stage debut in the role of an old Jew in Sin by Sh. Asch, at which time he adopted the surname Mikhoels. After performing the leading role in K. Gutzkow’s tragedy Uriel Acosta, he became the studio’s leading actor.

In 1921, in Granovsky’s production An Evening of Sholem Aleichem, he played Menakhem-Mendl (The Agents) and Reb Alter (Mazltov). During the 1920s his repertoire was dominated by Jewish classical drama: Gotzmach (The Sorceress after A. Goldfaden, 1922); Shimele (200,000 after Sholem Aleichem, 1923); the First Badkhen (Night in the Old Marketplace after I. L. Peretz); Benjamin (The Travels of Benjamin III after M. M. Sforim, 1927), and others. He also played Menakhem-Mendl in the film Jewish Luck (based on stories by Sholem Aleichem, 1925) and in the stage production The Man of the Air (1928).

In 1929 he became artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater (GOSET). The greatest achievement of his creative career was the role of King Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear (1935). In 1938 he played Dr. Jacoby in the film The Oppenheim Family (based on the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger). As artistic director he staged, among others: Nit Gedayget (Do Not Despair) by P. B. Markish (1931); jointly with S. E. Radlov, Four Days by M. M. Daniel (1931); Spets by I. M. Dobrushin and I. M. Nusinov (1932); Measure of Severity by D. R. Bergelson (1933); The Robber Boytre by M. S. Kulbak (1936); Shulamith by S. Galkin after A. Goldfaden (1937); and The Feast by Markish (1939).

In 1931 he founded an acting school affiliated with GOSET to train actors for Jewish theaters throughout the country. In August 1941 he was elected chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. After 1945 he continued his public activities. Mikhoels enjoyed immense authority not only in Soviet theatrical circles but also abroad. His popularity among broad Jewish audiences—who regarded him as their most significant representative—was used by Soviet authorities for propaganda purposes, and he was entrusted with various public posts.

During World War II he headed the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and in 1943, together with I. Fefer, undertook a tour of the United States, Canada, and Great Britain to raise funds for the Soviet Army. In early 1948, while traveling to Minsk as a representative of the Stalin Prize Committee, he was killed (according to the official version, in an automobile accident). He was buried in Moscow.

Honors: Honored Artist of the Republic (1926), People’s Artist of the Republic (1935), People’s Artist of the USSR (1939), and laureate of the Stalin Prize (1946).