Dmytro Mykhailovych Baida-Sukhovyi (*8 November 1882, Nahirne village, now Poltava region - †1974, Gelendzhik) was a Ukrainian actor, director, bandura player, collector and promoter of Ukrainian folk songs, one of the founders of Ukrainian cinema.
He was born on 8 November 1882 in the Poltava region into a working-class family. A few years after his birth, the family moved to Kharkiv, where his father worked as a foundry worker at a factory and his mother worked as a cook at Professor Trinkler's hospital. Dmytro worked at the factory as an apprentice, dreaming of becoming an actor.
In 1895, he was invited to join Mariia Zankovetska's troupe, first as a dancer and bandura soloist. He began his stage career in 1899, playing in the troupes of Mykola Sadovskyi, Onysym Suslov, Dmytro Haidamaka, and Lev Sabinin. In the early 20th century, he had his own troupe.
In the late 1900s, he signed cooperation agreements with film industry organisers Oleksandr Drankov and Oleksandr Khanzhonkov, under which he participated in filming and screening films in Ukraine and the Kuban. In 1910-1916, he was one of the first in Ukraine to film theatre productions. As a stage director, he made films based on popular performances of the time. In addition to directing, he also acted in all of his films, in particular, in the comedy Kuma Khveska he played both male and female roles. The silent films were dubbed by actors who dubbed themselves on screen, as well as by music, in particular, by Baida-Sukhoviy himself playing the bandura.
During the First World War, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked with his father at the Putylov factory, fulfilling military orders. From 1917, he served in the people's militia of Petrograd.
In 1920, Dmytro Baida-Sukhoviy was invited to Gelendzhik, which had just been liberated from the White Guards, where he created a folk theatre. The theatre company was made up of actors who had stayed in Gelendzhik during the revolution, young Komsomol members and older amateur actors. At the same time, he taught local youth theatre. Later, he set up a set and costume workshop in the theatre. In Gelendzhik, Baida-Sukhovyi married Faina Kvitka, a member of the local Neklyudov family of creative intellectuals.
In the late 1920s, he performed a duet with Dosenko-Zhurba.
In the 1930s, he played in Kharkiv theatres and toured with Ukrainian melodramas and lyrical comedies.
During the Second World War, he re-established a theatre in Gelendzhik, which operated from 1941 until it was destroyed by German troops in 1942.
Since the 1950s, he has lived in retirement in Gelendzhik, periodically taking part in festive concerts, productions and recitals, and trips of the propaganda brigade. He died in this city in 1974.
Creative work
As a director and actor, he participated in films:
"Kuma Hweska (1910),
"The Jewess of the Crossroads (1911),
"The Snake in the Undergrowth (1911),
"Matchmaking at a Party (1911),
"Three Loves in Sacks (1911),
"Treason is Everywhere (1912),
"The Day Laborer (1912),
"Zaporizhzhia Treasure (1912),
"Sleep, Fighting Eagles" (1914).
As a singer-bandura player, he successfully performed on the professional stage, giving concerts in the Far East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and throughout the Russian Federation. In particular, in February 1930, he played the kobza in the regional museum of Dnipro
