Ivan Kirov on AllMovie

That Ivan Kirov only ever appeared in one movie, Specter of the Rose, is understandable -- he was never really trained as an actor, or even as a dancer (which was the reason for which he was cast in that film) -- but he had a physical presence that was perfect for what was asked of him in that one film. His background was mysterious; Kirov was notoriously evasive about his personal history in interviews, a fact that journalists commented on in the resulting articles. Born Ivan Kashkevich in Newark, NJ, in 1912, he claimed to have been stricken with polio as a boy and to have recovered from a rigorous regimen of swimming, particularly the backstroke. By his own account a top amateur swimmer -- as a result of his treatment for the paralysis -- he later studied geology at U.S.C., where he also appeared on the radio under the name Johnny Kaye. He took up the study of dance at the Kosloff School, and subsequently was cast in a stage production of Lady in the Dark, and later joined Leonide Massine's dance group. He also began appearing in vaudeville under the name John Bradley, but moved into legitimate theater when he was cast in a production of Oklahoma! It was while appearing on-stage in a dance recital that he was spotted by the author/producer Ben Hecht who decided to cast Kirov in his proposed film Specter of the Rose, which was inspired by the life of Nijinsky. One of the oddest films ever made in Hollywood, and certainly the strangest movie ever made at Republic Pictures, Specter of the Rose was a box-office disaster, not of sufficient proportions to harm the careers of the established actors (Judith Anderson, Lionel Stander, Michael Chekhov) who appeared in it, but more than enough to doom any aspirations that its star might have had for a screen career. Kirov was barely trained as an actor, and was regarded as scarcely serious as a dancer, the latter a failing to which he freely admitted, due to his having started so late in training. Apart from his phenomenal good looks and the sheer physicality that he brought to the role -- of a dancer driven to murder and suicide by his psychosis -- he seemed a totally alien presence on the screen, which was probably appropriate, given the nature of the part. Kirov never did another movie, but was reported at the start of the 1950s to have returned to the lower rungs of theater entertainment, with an act that involved live snakes. In later years, he and his co-star, Viola Essen, would attract some fresh curiosity as The Specter of the Rose was restored and shown occasionally in repertory programs, as a strange remnant of Hollywood's brief postwar flirtation with notions of high art.