Actor. Last name also spelled Cherkassov. One of the most popular Russian movie stars of his era, he won international fame for playing the title roles in director Sergei Eisenstein’s classics “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) and “Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II” (1944-1946). His rugged charisma led Western critics to dub him “The Russian Gary Cooper.” Nikolai Konstantinovich Cherkasov was born in St. Petersburg.  He started working at the Mariinsky Theatre as a stagehand in 1918,  and made his acting debut there in 1926.  A year later he began appearing in films.  Cherkasov’s commanding presence typed him in heroic roles,  usually in bio-pics and historical epics.  He played writer Maxim Gorky in “Lenin in 1918” (1939) and “Ivan Pavlov” (1949),  Franklin D. Roosevelt in “The Battle of Stalingrad” (1949),  and the title roles in “Alexander Popov” (1950),  “Rimsky-Korsakov” (1953),  “They Knew Mayakovsky” (1955),  and “Don Quixote” (1956).  Reputedly dictator Josef Stalin’s favorite actor,  Cherkasov was elected to the Supreme Soviet in 1937,  awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939,  and named People’s Artist of the USSR in 1947.  His autobiography,  “Notes of a Soviet Actor,”  was published in 1951.  He died from complications of heart disease and emphysema.  Fittingly,  he was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. (bio by: Bobb Edwards)