Soviet and Estonian theater and film actor, film director. Honored Art Worker of the Estonian SSR (1975).
Born on March 8, 1926 in Tallinn to a Russian family with Old Believer roots. In 1944, Grigory, who reached the age of majority, was mobilized to the Wehrmacht, but with the help of his mother he escaped from the preparatory camp. In 1946 he graduated from Tallinn secondary school No. 6. Being bilingual, he was equally proficient in Russian and Estonian.
In 1946-1949 he studied at the Estonian State Theater Institute, which existed in 1946-1950. State Theater Institute of the Estonian SSR. In 1953, as a member of 25 students of the Estonian studio, he graduated from the acting faculty of GITIS and began working as an actor in the Tallinn State Academic Drama Theater named after Viktor Kingissep. After three years (presumably because of his Russian accent) he was forced to leave the theater.
Since 1956 he worked as a director, and in 1961-1963 - as the chief director of the Estonian State Academic Drama Theater. - In 1961-1963 he worked as the chief director of the Estonian Television[2]. During the filming of the movie "Boys of One Village" (1962) he was the second director.
In 1963-1981, as a production director of the Tallinnfilm studio, he directed six films, of which the last three, especially the cult film "The Last Relic" (1969), brought him all-union fame.
In 1981-1982, he was the chief director of the State Russian Drama Theater of the Estonian SSR, where Kromanov's career did not work out. The alleged reasons were claims about his state of health, his "dubious" past and alleged attempts to "estonize" the theater.
In 1966-1984 he taught intermittently at the Department of Performing Arts of the Tallinn State Conservatory.
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