Trivia

He was a pupil of Stanislavski, but in a 1960 newspaper article, he rejected Method acting (as well as all other acting theories).

Although he spoke very little English at the time of his arrival in the United States, his first stage role there was a lead in Georg Buchner's play "Danton's Death", under the direction of Orson Welles. Welles insisted that it would be demeaning for an actor of Sokoloff's reputation to play a small part and personally coached him in English for the role, which he did phonetically. It was said that Welles was in awe of him and frequently asked him about his career in the Moscow Arts Theatre.

With the rise of Nazism, Sokoloff who was Jewish, moved first to Paris in 1932, then to the United States in 1937.

He quickly found work in American films, playing characters of a wide variety of nationalities (he himself once estimated 35); for example, Filipino ("Back to Bataan"), French ("Passage to Marseille"), Greek ("Mr. Lucky"), Arab ("Road to Morocco"), Romanian ("I Was a Teenage Werewolf"), Chinese ("Macao" and "To the Ends of the Earth"), and Mexican ("The Magnificent Seven"). Among his better-known roles are Anselmo in "For Whom the Bell Tolls"(1943) and the Old Man in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960).

He became an actor and assistant director with the Moscow Art Theatr before emigrating to Berlin in 1923.

Vladimir Sokoloff - as his name suggests - was born in Russia. He grew up in a German-Jewish family and learned the German language. After university, he attended the Moscow Academy of Dramatic Art.

After a long career, he died of a stroke in 1962 in Hollywood, California.

He appeared in a number of Broadway plays from 1927 to 1950.

Fluent in Russian, German, French, and English.

After he gave a guest performance in Berlin in 1923, he got offers for German theatre work. Finally, he signed with Max Reinhardt - the road to film was only a stone's throw from here.

Made his stage acting debut in 1913, and subsequently became a very busy actor.