Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky; Russian: Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russian-American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in film in 1928. Auer had a long career playing in many of the era's best known films. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1936 for his performance in the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, which led to further zany comedy roles. He later moved into television and acted in films again in France and Italy well into the 1960s.
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Early life
Auer was born on 17 November 1905 in St. Petersburg, to a Jewish family. His name is usually seen as Mischa Ounskowsky, Mischa being the German transliteration of Misha (the diminutive form of Mikhail), and Ounskowsky being the French transliteration of his surname (with an unexplained additional "s").
Auer's father was an Imperial Russian Navy officer Semyon Ivanovich Unkovsky (1871–1921), and his mother was Zoya Lvovna Unkovskaya (née Auer), the eldest daughter of the Hungarian-born violinist Leopold Auer. Contrary to the popular belief, his father did not die when Mischa was three years old. Semyon Unkovsky left Zoya Auer and married her sister, Maria Lvovna Auer (they had a son, also named Mischa (Mikhail Unkovsky) (1904–1940), Russian actor, arrested in 1938 on counter-revolutionary charges and died in forced labour camp in Kolyma). Semyon Unkovsky retired from the Navy in 1906 and settled in Kaluga, Russia, where he died in 1921. Leopold Auer emigrated to the United States after the Russian Revolution. Mischa Auer and his mother became separated, but were reunited during the Russian Civil War. She, however, died of typhus. Auer was able to contact his grandfather, who brought him to the United States in August 1920.
