A literature and philosophy student in his native Moscow, Vladimir Sokoloff trained for an acting career under Stanislavsky at the {~Moscow Art Theatre}. Leaving Russia in 1923, Sokoloff resettled in Germany, where he made his first film, Uneasy Money, in 1926. Dividing his time between Paris and Berlin throughout the 1930s, Sokoloff came to Hollywood in 1937, where his craggy face and colorful accent enabled him to secure choice character roles.
Despite his name and ethnic derivation, Sokoloff successfully portrayed nearly 35 different nationalities during his American career: He was Frenchman Paul Cezanne in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), a Middle Easterner in Road to Morocco (1942), Spanish freedom fighter Anselmo in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), an elderly Mexican in The Magnificent Seven (1960), and so it went. Vladimir Sokoloff was active in films (Taras Bulba) and TV programs (The Twilight Zone) right up to his death in 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide. 