Michael Visaroff

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Russian actor

title: "Michael Visaroff" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1892-births", "1951-deaths", "american-people-of-russian-descent", "deaths-from-pneumonia-in-california", "emigrants-from-the-russian-empire-to-the-united-states", "male-actors-from-moscow", "russian-male-film-actors", "russian-male-silent-film-actors", "20th-century-american-male-actors"] description: "Russian actor" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Visaroff" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Russian actor ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameMichael Visaroff
imageMichael Visaroff in The Son of Monte Cristo.jpg
alt
captionVisaroff in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
birth_nameMikhail Semonovich Visaroff
birth_date
birth_placeMoscow, Russian Empire
death_date
death_placeHollywood, California, U.S.
occupationActor
years_active1925–1952
spouseNina Visaroff
(m. 192?; died 1938)
::

| name = Michael Visaroff | image = Michael Visaroff in The Son of Monte Cristo.jpg | alt = | caption = Visaroff in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) | birth_name = Mikhail Semonovich Visaroff | birth_date = | birth_place = Moscow, Russian Empire | death_date = | death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S. | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1925–1952 | spouse = Nina Visaroff (m. 192?; died 1938) Michael Simeon Visaroff (born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров); December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian-born character actor, who worked in the United States on stage and screen.

Biography

Visaroff was born in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was a graduate of the Russian Principal Dramatic School.

Visaroff started his career on stage: In July 1922, Visaroff came to the United States with a group from the Kamerny Theatre in Moscow. With a 14-week leave of absence from Russia, the group planned to present 12 plays, each lasting one week, in a Broadway theater.

He eventually made the transition to film, appearing in more than 110 films between 1925 and 1952. He was best known for his uncredited appearance in an early scene of Dracula (1931) as the nervous Hungarian innkeeper who, as Renfield is traveling to meet the Count, warns him about the actual existence of vampires.

Personal life

When Visaroff came to the US in July 1922 he was already married to Nina Visaroff, according to the passenger list, and they had a daughter named Lydia. ?Yet they got married again in 1924 in New York.? His age in the passenger list is stated as 32 and in the naturalization file dated in March 1929, is given as 39 meaning that he was born in 1889 and not in 1892 as he claimed later in his life.

Census records for 1950 show he was aged 51 and living in Beverly Hills with a wife named Stella, aged 48, who was born in New York State. He died in Hollywood, California, from pneumonia in 1951.

Partial filmography

References

References

  1. Naturalization file. "Ancestry.com".
  2. Marriage certificate. "Ancestry.com".
  3. (2001). "Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory". McFarland.
  4. (July 10, 1922). "Here to Arrange Tour of Soviet Players". The New York Times.
  5. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ajXwxJuYd5gC&dq=visaroff+pneumonia+1951&pg=PA280 ''American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913–1929'']

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1892-births1951-deathsamerican-people-of-russian-descentdeaths-from-pneumonia-in-californiaemigrants-from-the-russian-empire-to-the-united-statesmale-actors-from-moscowrussian-male-film-actorsrussian-male-silent-film-actors20th-century-american-male-actors