Georges Pitoëff(1884-1939)

Pitoeff only appeared in two films but had a major impact on theater in France during his prime years (1934-1939) during which his Theater of the Champs Elysees put on over 200 productions. He was born in 1884 in Tiflis, Georgia, when it was part of the Russian empire.Though his father has been head of a Tiflis drama group, Georges first studied law and engineering before turning back to the family profession as an actor and starting his first management company in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1915.The group toured in Paris and returned there after the Great War, turning into a permanently French based troupe. Pitoeff 's company specialized in translations of more recent authors such as Chekhov, O'Neill, Pirandello, Schnitzler and Shaw and was especially remembered for its interpretations of Ibsen.Through these stagings, these particular playwrights became more well known to the French. The actor also wrote a book on stage direction .During the period leading up to the Second World War he retreated to Switzerland, where he died,in 1939.His wife Ludmilla, with whom he had had seven children, including future actor Sacha Pitoeff continuing the tradition, then dissolved the theater business.