LYUBIMOV, YURY PETROVICH

born Sept. 30 [Sept. 17, Old Style], 1917, Yaroslavl, Russia Lyubimov also spelled Liubimov Soviet theatre director and actor noted for his two decades of somewhat experimental productions for the Taganka Theatre in Moscow. Lyubimov served from 1940 to 1946 in the Soviet army, joining the company of the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theatre upon his release. In 1953 he began teaching at the B.V. Shchukin Drama School, from which he had graduated in 1939, and in 1964 he became the chief director of the Taganka Theatre. Because his productions did not avoid raising philosophical or political issues that questioned the Communist Party line, the Taganka became a gathering place for intellectuals and dissidents. In 1984, while he was in London, he was stripped of his citizenship. Thereafter he was a guest director for many theatre and opera companies throughout the United States and western Europe.