Theatre Register

Maria Karnilova

Shows · Maria Karnilova

Actor 1920–2001 On stage 19461981

Maria Karnilova (August 3, 1920 – April 20, 2001) was an American dancer and actress. She was initially known legally as Maria Karniloff. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Filip (Philip) and Stefanida Dovgolenko (or Dowholonok), emigrants from Tsarist Russia. The family later moved to Brooklyn, New York. She started her professional career in 1927 in the Children's Ballet of the Metropolitan Opera and joined the corps when Ballet Theater, now American Ballet Theatre, was founded in 1939. She adopted the name Karniloff, and later, Karnilova as her professional name. Her professional surname was often ascribed as her own mother's maiden name, however, that is inaccurate as…

On stage 13 productions, 35 years

1946 Call Me Mister National Theatre · Original · directed by Robert H. Gordon 734 perf.
1949 Miss Liberty Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Moss Hart 308 perf.
1952 Two’s Company Alvin Theatre · Original · directed by Production supervised by John Murray Anderson (sketches directed by Jules Dassin) 90 perf.
1958 Jerome Robbins' Ballet: U.S.A. Alvin Theatre · Original 44 perf.
1959 Gypsy Broadway Theatre · Revival · directed by Jerome Robbins 702 perf.
1962 Bravo Giovanni Broadhurst Theatre · Original · directed by Stanley Prager 76 perf.
1964 Fiddler on the Roof Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Jerome Robbins 3,242 perf.
1968 Zorba Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Cacoyannis 305 perf.
1973 Gigi Uris Theatre · Revival · directed by Joseph Hardy 103 perf.
1974 God's Favorite Eugene Oneill Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Bennett 119 perf.
1975 A Gala Tribute to Joshua Logan Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Anna Sosenko 1 perf.
1981 Bring Back Birdie Martin Beck Theatre · Original · directed by Joe Layton 4 perf.
1981 Fiddler on the Roof New York State Theatre · Revival · directed by Jerome Robbins 53 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once12 names

Herschel Bernardi 3 productions
George S. Irving 3 productions
Sid Lawson 2 productions
Ruth Jaroslow 2 productions
Robert Pagent 2 productions
Peg Murray 2 productions
Paul Lipson 2 productions
Michael Mann 2 productions
Maurice Brenner 2 productions
Marsha Tamaroff 2 productions
Ken LeRoy 2 productions
Irene Paris 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 7 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

Two’s Company

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • Cast : Bette Davis , Hiram Sherman, David Burns, Bill Callahan, Stanley Prager, Ellen Hanley, George S. Irving, Maria Karnilova, Buzz Miller, Oliver Wakefield, Peter Kelley, Robert Orton’s Teen Aces, Nora Kaye; Singers: Art Carroll, Clifford Fearl, Bill Krach, Robert Neukum, Franklin Neil, Sue Hight, Lenore Korman, Tina Louise, May Muth,…ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Cast: Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, Bill Callahan, Lawrence Winters, Paula Bane, Maria Karnilova, George S. Irvingebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Cast: Eddie Albert, Allyn Ann McLerie, Mary McCarty, Charles Dingle, Philip Bourneuf, Ethel Griffies, Herbert Berghof, Tommy Rail, Janice Rule, Maria Karnilova, Dody Goodmanebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Miss LIBERTY . Allyn Ann McLerie, Eddie Albert, Mary McCarty, Charles Dingle, Maria Karnilova, and Tommy Rail lead the cast in singing “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor.”ebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Cast: Ethel Merman, Jack Klugman, Sandra Church, Lane Bradbury, Maria Karnilova, Paul Wallace, Jacqueline Mayro, Karen Moore, Joe Silverebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Cast: Zero Mostel, Maria Karnilova, Beatrice Arthur, Joanna Merlin, Austin Pendleton, Bert Convy, Julia Migenes, Michael Granger, Tanya Everett, Leonard Frey, Maurice Edwardsebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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