Olga Knipper

Olga Knipper

Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (Russian: Ольга Леонардовна Книппер-Чехова; 21 September 1868 – 22 March 1959) was a Russian stage actress. She was married to Anton Chekhov.

Knipper was among the 44 original members of the Moscow Art Theatre when it was formed by Constantin Stanislavski in 1898. She played Arkadina in The Seagull (1898), played Elena in the Moscow premiere of Uncle Vanya (1899), and was the first to play Masha in Three Sisters (1901) and Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard (1904). Knipper married Anton Chekhov, the author of these plays, in 1901. Knipper-Chekhova played Ranevskaya again in 1943, when the theatre marked the 300th performance of The Cherry Orchard. The German actress Olga Chekhova was her niece and the Soviet composer Lev Knipper was her nephew.