Raikin(Reikin) Arkady Isaakovich (1911, Riga — 1987, Moscow) — variety artist.

In 1935 Arkady Raikin graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Performing Arts and began working at the Leningrad Theatre of Working Youth. At the same time, he performed on stage as a compère. From 1939 he was an actor and later the artistic director of the Leningrad Theatre of Variety and Miniatures, which he founded that same year (since 1982 — the State Theatre of Miniatures in Moscow; since 1987 — the Satirikon Theatre, which has borne his name since 1992).

Laureate of the 1st All-Union Variety Artists Competition (1939). In 1940 his first programme, Over a Cup of Tea by V.S. Polyakov, appeared. His first post-war performance was In Our Own Words (1945). Among his programmes of the 1950s–1960s were There Is No Sin in Laughter by V.S. Polyakov (1953), White Nights by B.K. Livshits and A.A. Khazin (1957), Traffic Light by M.M. Zhvanetsky, L.M. Likhodeev and others (1967). In the programme Plus–Minus (by L.M. Likhodeev and M.M. Zhvanetsky), the monologue In the Greek Hall gained wide popularity.

He appeared in film and television productions, including Doctor Kalyuzhny (1939, role of Dr. Monya Shapiro), Concert to the Front (1943), Arkady Raikin (1967), The Magic Power of Art (1971), and others. In 1981 the premiere of the performance His Majesty the Theatre took place. In 1987 he toured the United States. Together with his daughter, E.A. Raikina, an actress of the Vakhtangov Theatre, and his son K.A. Raikin, he performed in the programme Fathers and Children.

People’s Artist of the USSR (1968), laureate of the Lenin Prize (1980), Hero of Socialist Labour (1981).