{{short description|Russian actor}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Michael Visaroff | image = Michael Visaroff in The Son of Monte Cristo.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Visaroff in ''The Son of Monte Cristo'' (1940) | birth_name = Mikhail Semonovich Visaroff | birth_date = {{birth date|1889|12|18}} | birth_place = Moscow, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1951|2|27|1889|12|18}} | death_place = Hollywood, California, U.S. | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1925&ndash;1952 | spouse = Nina Visaroff<br>({{abbr|m.|married}} 192?; died 1938) }} '''Michael Simeon Visaroff''' (born '''Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov''' (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров); December 18, 1889<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/40/?name=_Visaroff&birth=1890&birth_x=1-0-0&location=2&name_x=1_1&priority=usa|title=Ancestry.com|last=Naturalization file|date=|website=Ancestry.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=NYCMarriageIndex&gss=sfs28_ms_db&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Michael&gsfn_x=1&gsln=Visaroff&gsln_x=1&msgdy=1924&MSAV=1&uidh=lz7|title=Ancestry.com|last=Marriage certificate|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> &ndash; February 27, 1951) was a Russian-born character actor, who worked in the United States on stage and screen.

==Biography== Visaroff was born in Moscow, Russian Empire.<ref name="clac">{{cite book|last1=Ellenberger|first1=Allan R.|title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory|date=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786450190|page=15|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZraJCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Michael+Visaroff%22&pg=PA15|access-date=January 4, 2018|language=en}}</ref> He was a graduate of the Russian Principal Dramatic School.

Visaroff started his career on stage: In July 1922, Visaroff came to the United States with a group from the Kamerny Theatre in Moscow. With a 14-week leave of absence from Russia, the group planned to present 12 plays, each lasting one week, in a Broadway theater.<ref>{{cite news|title=Here to Arrange Tour of Soviet Players|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16243681/michael_visaroff/|work=The New York Times|date=July 10, 1922|location=New York, New York City|page=13|via = Newspapers.com|access-date= January 4, 2018}} {{Open access}}</ref>

He eventually made the transition to film, appearing in more than 110 films between 1925 and 1952. He was best known for his uncredited appearance in an early scene of ''Dracula'' (1931) as the nervous Hungarian innkeeper who, as Renfield is traveling to meet the Count, warns him about the actual existence of vampires.

==Personal life== When Visaroff came to the US in July 1922 he was already married to Nina Visaroff, according to the passenger list, and they had a daughter named Lydia. ?Yet they got married again in 1924 in New York.? <ref name=":0" /> His age in the passenger list is stated as 32 and in the naturalization file dated in March 1929, is given as 39 meaning that he was born in 1889 and not in 1892 as he claimed later in his life.

Census records for 1950 show he was aged 51 and living in Beverly Hills with a wife named Stella, aged 48, who was born in New York State. He died in Hollywood, California, from pneumonia in 1951.<ref name="clac" /><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ajXwxJuYd5gC&dq=visaroff+pneumonia+1951&pg=PA280 ''American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913–1929'']</ref>

==Partial filmography== {{div col|colwidth=25em}} * ''Paris'' (1926) * ''The Nickel-Hopper'' (1926) * ''Valencia'' (1926) * ''The Sunset Derby'' (1927) * ''Two Arabian Knights'' (1927) * ''The Last Command'' (1928) * ''Ramona'' (1928) * ''Tempest'' (1928) * ''The Night Bird'' (1928) * ''We Americans'' (1928) * ''Lullaby'' (1929) * ''Marquis Preferred'' (1929) * ''House of Horror'' (1929) * ''Disraeli'' (1929) * ''Du Barry, Woman of Passion'' (1930) * ''Morocco'' (1930) * ''Dracula'' (1931) (uncredited) * ''Mata Hari'' (1931) (uncredited) * ''Chinatown After Dark'' (1931) * ''Arizona Terror'' (1931) * ''Six Hours to Live'' (1932) * ''Mark of the Vampire'' (1935) * ''The Magnificent Brute'' (1936) * ''The Soldier and the Lady'' (1937) * ''I'll Give a Million'' (1938) * ''Paris Honeymoon'' (1939) * ''The Flying Deuces'' (1939) (uncredited) * ''Everything Happens at Night'' (1939) * ''Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum'' (1940) * ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' (1941) (uncredited) * ''Reunion in France'' (1942) (uncredited) * ''Paris After Dark'' (1943) - Paul * ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' (1943) * ''Yolanda and the Thief'' (1945) * ''Don Ricardo Returns'' (1946) {{div col end}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Michael Visaroff}} * {{IMDb name}} * {{IBDB name}} * {{Find a Grave}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Visaroff, Michael}} Category:1892 births Category:1951 deaths Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Category:Male actors from Moscow Category:Russian male film actors Category:Russian male silent film actors Category:20th-century American male actors