Igor Ilyinsky was a theatre and film actor, director, and educator. He studied at the Fyodor Komissarzhevsky Theatre Studio. In his early career he performed in various St. Petersburg and Moscow theatres, including experimental productions by Nikolay Foregger and the Meyerhold Theatre. A defining influence was the innovative director Vsevolod Meyerhold, with whom Ilyinsky collaborated extensively in the 1920s – early 1930s. He created memorable roles in Meyerhold's landmark productions, including "The Magnanimous Cuckold" (Bruno), "The Death of Tarelkin" (Rasplyuev), "The Forest" (Schastlivtsev), "Woe from Wit" (Famusov), and "The Bedbug" (Prisypkin). A master of external transformation and character acting, Ilyinsky pursued psychological depth on stage. From 1938 he served at the Maly Theatre, portraying characters from Ostrovsky, Gogol, Griboyedov, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky. Ilyinsky was a popular film actor since the silent era ("Aelita", "The Tailor from Torzhok"). He became beloved for his comic roles in Soviet cinema, such as Comrade Byvalov in "Volga-Volga" (1938) and Ogurtsov in "Carnival Night" (1956). He also taught acting at the Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School and the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts. In the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum collection there are approximately 1,500 items related to Igor Ilyinsky's legacy: documents, photographs, posters, graphic works, and books with his autographs.