Oskar Seliaru


Oskar Leenart Seliaru was an Estonian actor, director, and puppeteer.

Early life and education

Oskar Seliaru was born in Rakvere, Estonia, the son of Jüri Schelbach and Marie Schelbach. He attended at Rakvere High School, and he participated in the Estonian War of Independence as a schoolboy. In his youth he was also engaged in journalism and was an athlete.

Career

Seliaru started performing on the stage in 1926 in the Rakvere Actors' Circle, and he was an actor at the Drama Theater from 1936 to 1944, where he directed a puppet troupe and a was a puppet technician.
In 1944, he fled to Germany. He founded the puppet troupe Sel's Marionettes there, and he performed from 1945 to 1950 with his own puppet plays, including See oli unenägu and Seitse ühe hoobiga. He relocated to New York in 1950 and directed and acted at the Estonian Theater.

Productions

Roles

Family

Seliaru became engaged to the Estonian actress, director, and costume designer Lo Tui in February 1937, and they were married in Tallinn on May 1, 1937. Oskar Seliaru erroneously sought to have Lo Tui declared legally dead in 1951 because he believed that she had been killed during the Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic states in 1944.