Kaarel Ird
Kaarel Ird (27 August 190925 December 1986) was an Estonian theatre leader, director and actor. Ird was born in Riga, and his theatrical career started in 1932 in Pärnu Töölisteater. Since 1940 he worked at Vanemuine Theatre, being most of time its stage manager, but in the meantime also its head.
Kaarel Ird
- Name
- Kaarel Ird
- Birth Name
- Kirill Irdt
- Born
- 27 August 1909
- Birthplace
- Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Latvia)
- Died
- 25 December 1986
- Place of death
- Viljandi, then part of Estonian SSR, Soviet Union
- Occupation
- * Theatre director
- Nationality
- Soviet Union · Estonia · Russian Empire
- Honours
- USSR State Prize · Order of Lenin · Hero of Socialist Labour · Order of the Badge of Honour · People's Artist of the USSR · Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Languages
- Estonian · Latvian
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Kaarel Ird (27 August 190925 December 1986) was an Estonian theatre leader, director and actor. Ird was born in Riga, and his theatrical career started in 1932 in Pärnu Töölisteater. Since 1940 he worked at Vanemuine Theatre, being most of time its stage manager, but in the meantime also its head.
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wikidata · Q4203123 · wikipedia · Kaarel Ird
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Biography
Biography
From 1963 to 1971 and again from 1980 to 1985, Ird was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Ird has remained in the history of Estonian theatre as a conflicted and contradictory personality. On the one hand, he was a powerful, explosive and dictatorial theatre director with a communist worldview, and on the other hand, he was a fervent defender of Estonian original heritage, which was condemned by the regime, the one who turned Vanemuine into a nationwide phenomenon and the guardian of the theatre renewal generation of the 1970s. He also preserved the last of German influenced theater in Estonia while other theaters were slowly influenced by russification policies. In 1936, Ird wed the stage actress and theatre director Epp Kaidu. He died on 25 December 1986 in Viljandi. • 1946 Estonian SSR Merited Artist • 1959 Estonian SSR People's Artist
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Kaarel Ird • Birth Name — Kirill Irdt • Born — 27 August 1909 • Birthplace — Riga, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Latvia) • Died — 25 December 1986 • Place of death — Viljandi, then part of Estonian SSR, Soviet Union • Occupation — * Theatre director • actor
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
• 1947 Life in the Citadel (feature film; role: Western agent) • 1955 Andrus's Fortune (feature film; role:?) • 1973 An Unusual Story (feature film; role: prosecutor) • 1974 The Red Violin (1974 film) (feature film; role: Broschowski)
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Riga.
Birth place
Viljandi.
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reference work
- “Kaarel Ird”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q4203123: Kaarel Ird
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1- Order of LeninTerminology
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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