Biography
Akim Tamiroff was an Armenian-American actor. Born in Tiflis in the Russian Empire, he trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the United States in 1923 with a theatrical troupe and remained there, building a stage career before moving to Hollywood in the early 1930s.
Tamiroff became a prolific character actor, appearing in more than eighty films over nearly four decades despite his accent. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for The General Died at Dawn (1936) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), and won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the latter performance. He collaborated with Orson Welles on several projects, including Mr. Arkadin (1955) and Touch of Evil (1958).
Among his later roles were appearances in Ocean's Eleven (1960), Topkapi (1964) and Alphaville (1965). Tamiroff received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to motion pictures.
