Porfiri Artemyevich Podobed (Russian: Порфирий Артемьевич Подобед; 16 October [O.S. 3 October] 1886 — 9 November 1965) was a Soviet film director, actor and manager at the Moscow Art Theatre.
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Early life
Porfiri Podobed came from a Russian Orthodox family of Artemy Podobed and Elena Fyodorovna Karry (1868–1932), a well-known opera singer at the Bolshoi Theatre and a stepsister of Vasily and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. In 1910 Porfiri finished the Sea Cadet Corps in Saint Petersburg in the rank of michman. As a Gardes-Marine he took part in the 1908 Messina earthquake rescue and was awarded for it. In 1909, he was promoted to midshipman, and on December 6, 1912, to lieutenant.
In 1915 Podobed joined the World War I. He served aboard the Gangut battleship and took part in the Gulf of Finland mining for which he was awarded the 3rd class Order of Saint Stanislaus. On 19 October a mutiny happened among the lower ranking members which led to an investigation and a trial. According to the memoirs of one of the rebels, Dmitry Ivanov, Podobed was relieved of duty for expressing support for the sailors, but was later restored and returned to war. Ivanov also claimed that Podobed helped underground revolutionaries. Following the October Revolution he took part in the Russian Civil War and served in the Soviet Navy headquarters under Aleksandr Nemits.
Career
In 1918 Podobed took a managing position at the Moscow Art Theatre headed by his relative Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. He left it in 1919, but regained in 1921 following the demobilization and worked there up until 1926. He was one of the founders of the MKhAT Museum. His correspondence with Nemirovich-Danchenko contains many important facts about the theatre life during the New Economic Policy. Also in 1918 Podobed performed his first role in the Swamp Mirages drama movie directed by Victor Tourjansky and based on the Swamp Lights novel by Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko. The film was released only in 1923 and is considered lost today.