Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination.

[citation needed] Chekhov's first wife was actress Olga Chekhova, whom he met at the Moscow Art Theatre First Studio.

Subsequently, the outward gesture is suppressed and incorporated internally, allowing the physical memory to inform the performance on an unconscious level.

Following developments in Germany that threatened the outbreak of war he moved to the US with the couple, and later writers, Anne Cumming and Henry Lyon Young to recreate a drama school.

[5] Chekhov taught a range of movement dynamics such as molding, floating, flying, and radiating that actors use to find the physical core of a character.

[citation needed] Despite his seemingly external approach, Chekhov's techniques were meant to lead the actor to a rich internal life.

Chekhov's own students included Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Quinn, Clint Eastwood, Dorothy Dandridge, Mala Powers, Yul Brynner, Patricia Neal, Sterling Hayden, Jack Palance, Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, Paula Strasberg, Guy Gillette, and Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges.

The English translation of his autobiography The Path of the Actor was edited by Andrei Kirillov and Bella Merlin and published by Routledge in 2005, marking the 50th anniversary of his death.