Lado Aleksi-Meskhishvili

Illness forced him to abandon studies and return to Georgia, where he worked as a teacher in Telavi.

After medical studies and amateur acting, he joined the Tbilisi Georgian-language troupe in 1881, running it from 1890 to 1896 and from 1910 to 1914, and the Kutaisi Theater from 1897 to 1906 and again from 1914 to 1915.

[1] In 1916-1918, during a stay in Russia, he played in the films: Fathers and Children, Lost Necklace, The Shame of the Orlovs, and Three Thieves, amongst others.

A flamboyantly heroic actor, Aleksi-Meskhishvili used his performances to promote revolutionary ideas, and even engaged in barricade fighting during the Russian Revolution of 1905.

An example of how much he was loved and respected is the case of his 1903 illness when public awareness of the fact resulted in Georgian society gathering together the funds to send him to Vienna for medical treatment.