Lopatynsky, Lev

Lopatynsky, Lev [Лопатинський, Лев; Lopatyns'kyj], b 29 February 1868 in Lviv, d 7 September 1914 near Yaniv, Galicia. Actor, author, and public figure; husband of Filomena Lopatynska and father of Faust Lopatynsky. After studying law at Lviv University he graduated in drama from the Vienna Conservatory (1891–92) and then was an actor in the Ruska Besida Theater, of which he became director in 1898. As an actor he played mostly heroic character roles, including Hnat in Taras Shevchenko’s Nazar Stodolia and Robert Heinecke in Hermann Sudermann’s Die Ehre. He wrote the plays Do Braziliï (To Brazil, 1878), Svekrukha (The Mother-in-law, 1899), and Parazia (1901) and the book Zur Psychologie des Schauspielers (1893). After abandoning his stage career Lopatynsky edited the newspapers Ruslan (1898–1907) and Bukovyna and practiced law in Sambir and Kopychyntsi.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]