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Lauteri A.
(Ants Lauter, 1894-1973)
Actor, “People’s Artist of the USSR”, who lived at No.8 in this street from 1960 till his death, star of famous Estonian pic: Mehed ei nuta (Men don’t cry). Part translator of Stanislavsky, and winner, lucky lad, of a Stalin Prize (1952) and Order of Lenin (1956). Lauter also means boat slip or landing stage for fishing boats (see Valguta), and its genitive is lautri, so it seems that the genitive of personal names tend to try to retain as much of the nominative as possible, perhaps to de-signify the root word (see, for example, Süda P.).
Otsa G.
(Georg Ots, 1920-1975)
Estonian baritone, beautiful, smooth voice. Born in Petrograd, son of Kaarel Ots, another renowned tenor. Best known for his title role in Rubinstein’s The Demon. And a pretty good swimmer too, winning national championships and breaking records such as the 1939 1500-m freestyle at Nõmme swimming-pool in 23:38:8 mins. The lucky lad has a taxi rank named after him too.
Laikmaa A.
(Ants Laikmaa, 1866-1942)
Painter (known as Hans Laipman until 1935. Estonians have a history of chronic name-changing (see Kassi). Bringer of impressionism to Estonia, one-time lover and perhaps best-known portraitist of the German-educated Marie Under he convinced to start translating/writing her poetry into/in Estonian.
Türnpu K.
(Konstantin Türnpu, 1865-1927)
Born Türnbaum. Renowned conductor of various male choral groups. Capable of playing organ for morning prayer at age eight. A former Old Believer’s Cemetery was located close by, seemingly buried beneath a football pitch.
