Konstantin Stanislavski

Born Alekseyev in 1863, he performed as an amateur under the stage name Stanislavski until age 33, when an 18-hour conversation with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko led them to co-found the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. Their production of The Seagull that year, followed by tours of Europe and the United States, made the MAT a proving ground for Chekhov, Gorky, and Bulgakov, and for Stanislavski's evolving rehearsal technique. He mentored Meyerhold, whom he called his sole theatrical heir, and shaped Vakhtangov and Michael Chekhov. A massive heart attack onstage at the MAT's 30th-anniversary celebration in 1928 ended his acting career, though he kept directing and teaching. He died in August 1938, weeks before the first volume of An Actor's Work reached print - the manual that codified a century of training to come.