diff --git a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorSpec.scala b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorSpec.scala
index 41e76dcce7..2bc2ed1540 100644
--- a/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-actor-tests/src/test/scala/akka/actor/SupervisorSpec.scala
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 package akka.actor
 
 import language.postfixOps
-
 import org.scalatest.BeforeAndAfterEach
 import scala.concurrent.duration._
 import akka.{ Die, Ping }
@@ -14,6 +13,12 @@ import akka.testkit._
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger
 import scala.concurrent.Await
 import akka.pattern.ask
+import com.typesafe.config.ConfigFactory
+import akka.dispatch.MailboxType
+import akka.dispatch.MessageQueue
+import com.typesafe.config.Config
+import akka.ConfigurationException
+import akka.routing.RoundRobinPool
 
 object SupervisorSpec {
   val Timeout = 5.seconds
@@ -64,10 +69,40 @@ object SupervisorSpec {
       case Status.Failure(_)  ⇒ /*Ignore*/
     }
   }
+
+  class Creator(target: ActorRef) extends Actor {
+    override val supervisorStrategy = OneForOneStrategy() {
+      case ex ⇒
+        target ! ((self, sender(), ex))
+        SupervisorStrategy.Stop
+    }
+    def receive = {
+      case p: Props ⇒ sender() ! context.actorOf(p)
+    }
+  }
+
+  def creator(target: ActorRef, fail: Boolean = false) = {
+    val p = Props(new Creator(target))
+    if (fail) p.withMailbox("error-mailbox") else p
+  }
+
+  val failure = new AssertionError("deliberate test failure")
+
+  class Mailbox(settings: ActorSystem.Settings, config: Config) extends MailboxType {
+    override def create(owner: Option[ActorRef], system: Option[ActorSystem]): MessageQueue =
+      throw failure
+  }
+
+  val config = ConfigFactory.parseString("""
+akka.actor.serialize-messages = off
+error-mailbox {
+  mailbox-type = "akka.actor.SupervisorSpec$Mailbox"
+}
+""")
 }
 
 @org.junit.runner.RunWith(classOf[org.scalatest.junit.JUnitRunner])
-class SupervisorSpec extends AkkaSpec("akka.actor.serialize-messages = off") with BeforeAndAfterEach with ImplicitSender with DefaultTimeout {
+class SupervisorSpec extends AkkaSpec(SupervisorSpec.config) with BeforeAndAfterEach with ImplicitSender with DefaultTimeout {
 
   import SupervisorSpec._
 
@@ -423,5 +458,43 @@ class SupervisorSpec extends AkkaSpec("akka.actor.serialize-messages = off") wit
       parent ! "testchild"
       expectMsg("child green")
     }
+
+    "log pre-creation check failures" when {
+
+      "creating a top-level actor" in EventFilter[ActorInitializationException](occurrences = 1).intercept {
+        val ref = system.actorOf(creator(testActor, fail = true))
+        watch(ref)
+        expectTerminated(ref)
+      }
+
+      "creating a normal child actor" in EventFilter[ConfigurationException](occurrences = 1).intercept {
+        val top = system.actorOf(creator(testActor))
+        top ! creator(testActor)
+        val middle = expectMsgType[ActorRef]
+        middle ! creator(testActor, fail = true)
+        expectMsgPF(hint = "ConfigurationException") {
+          case (top, middle, ex: ConfigurationException) ⇒
+            ex.getCause should ===(failure)
+        }
+      }
+
+      "creating a top-level router" in EventFilter[ActorInitializationException](occurrences = 1).intercept {
+        val ref = system.actorOf(creator(testActor, fail = true).withRouter(RoundRobinPool(1)))
+        watch(ref)
+        expectTerminated(ref)
+      }
+
+      "creating a router" in EventFilter[ConfigurationException](occurrences = 1).intercept {
+        val top = system.actorOf(creator(testActor))
+        top ! creator(testActor)
+        val middle = expectMsgType[ActorRef]
+        middle ! creator(testActor, fail = true).withRouter(RoundRobinPool(1))
+        expectMsgPF(hint = "ConfigurationException") {
+          case (top, middle, ex: ConfigurationException) ⇒
+            ex.getCause should ===(failure)
+        }
+      }
+
+    }
   }
 }
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
index 4165f388c0..e5753a4c08 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/ActorCell.scala
@@ -621,7 +621,7 @@ private[akka] class ActorCell(
 
   // future extension point
   protected def handleSupervise(child: ActorRef, async: Boolean): Unit = child match {
-    case r: RepointableActorRef if async ⇒ r.point()
+    case r: RepointableActorRef if async ⇒ r.point(catchFailures = true)
     case _                               ⇒
   }
 
@@ -649,4 +649,3 @@ private[akka] class ActorCell(
 
   protected final def clazz(o: AnyRef): Class[_] = if (o eq null) this.getClass else o.getClass
 }
-
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
index 311a1ab721..660dea44e3 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/RepointableActorRef.scala
@@ -6,15 +6,14 @@ package akka.actor
 
 import java.util.{ LinkedList ⇒ JLinkedList }
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock
-
 import scala.annotation.tailrec
 import scala.collection.immutable
-
 import akka.actor.dungeon.ChildrenContainer
 import akka.event.Logging.Warning
 import akka.util.Unsafe
 import akka.dispatch._
 import akka.dispatch.sysmsg._
+import scala.util.control.NonFatal
 
 /**
  * This actor ref starts out with some dummy cell (by default just enqueuing
@@ -76,7 +75,7 @@ private[akka] class RepointableActorRef(
         swapCell(new UnstartedCell(system, this, props, supervisor))
         swapLookup(underlying)
         supervisor.sendSystemMessage(Supervise(this, async))
-        if (!async) point()
+        if (!async) point(false)
         this
       case other ⇒ throw new IllegalStateException("initialize called more than once!")
     }
@@ -87,9 +86,16 @@ private[akka] class RepointableActorRef(
    * modification of the `underlying` field, though it is safe to send messages
    * at any time.
    */
-  def point(): this.type =
+  def point(catchFailures: Boolean): this.type =
     underlying match {
       case u: UnstartedCell ⇒
+        val cell =
+          try newCell(u)
+          catch {
+            case NonFatal(ex) if catchFailures ⇒
+              val safeDispatcher = system.dispatchers.defaultGlobalDispatcher
+              new ActorCell(system, this, props, safeDispatcher, supervisor).initWithFailure(ex)
+          }
         /*
          * The problem here was that if the real actor (which will start running
          * at cell.start()) creates children in its constructor, then this may
@@ -97,7 +103,6 @@ private[akka] class RepointableActorRef(
          * children cannot be looked up immediately, e.g. if they shall become
          * routees.
          */
-        val cell = newCell(u)
         swapLookup(cell)
         cell.start()
         u.replaceWith(cell)
diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Dispatch.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Dispatch.scala
index d5a4e93844..0906266843 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Dispatch.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/actor/dungeon/Dispatch.scala
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import scala.util.control.Exception.Catcher
 import akka.dispatch.MailboxType
 import akka.dispatch.ProducesMessageQueue
 import akka.serialization.SerializerWithStringManifest
+import akka.dispatch.UnboundedMailbox
 
 private[akka] trait Dispatch { this: ActorCell ⇒
 
@@ -80,6 +81,16 @@ private[akka] trait Dispatch { this: ActorCell ⇒
     this
   }
 
+  final def initWithFailure(failure: Throwable): this.type = {
+    val mbox = dispatcher.createMailbox(this, new UnboundedMailbox)
+    swapMailbox(mbox)
+    mailbox.setActor(this)
+    // ➡➡➡ NEVER SEND THE SAME SYSTEM MESSAGE OBJECT TO TWO ACTORS ⬅⬅⬅
+    val createMessage = Create(Some(ActorInitializationException(self, "failure while creating ActorCell", failure)))
+    mailbox.systemEnqueue(self, createMessage)
+    this
+  }
+
   /**
    * Start this cell, i.e. attach it to the dispatcher.
    */
diff --git a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingGetStatsSpec.scala b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingGetStatsSpec.scala
index 036f10b41a..149577b3e0 100644
--- a/akka-cluster-sharding/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingGetStatsSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-cluster-sharding/src/multi-jvm/scala/akka/cluster/sharding/ClusterShardingGetStatsSpec.scala
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ abstract class ClusterShardingGetStatsSpec extends MultiNodeSpec(ClusterSharding
       // make sure all nodes are up
       within(10.seconds) {
         awaitAssert {
-          Cluster(system).state.members.count(_.status == MemberStatus.Up) should === (4)
+          Cluster(system).state.members.count(_.status == MemberStatus.Up) should ===(4)
         }
       }
 
diff --git a/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala b/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
index a6fcc2fc39..c92392427e 100644
--- a/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
+++ b/akka-testkit/src/main/scala/akka/testkit/TestKit.scala
@@ -432,7 +432,7 @@ trait TestKitBase {
   private def expectMsgClass_internal[C](max: FiniteDuration, c: Class[C]): C = {
     val o = receiveOne(max)
     assert(o ne null, s"timeout ($max) during expectMsgClass waiting for $c")
-    assert(BoxedType(c) isInstance o, s"expected $c, found ${o.getClass}")
+    assert(BoxedType(c) isInstance o, s"expected $c, found ${o.getClass} ($o)")
     o.asInstanceOf[C]
   }
 
diff --git a/project/MiMa.scala b/project/MiMa.scala
index 12db64fd38..a91720c308 100644
--- a/project/MiMa.scala
+++ b/project/MiMa.scala
@@ -724,7 +724,11 @@ object MiMa extends AutoPlugin {
         ProblemFilters.exclude[MissingTypesProblem]("akka.stream.impl.FlowModule"),
         ProblemFilters.exclude[DirectMissingMethodProblem]("akka.stream.impl.FlowModule.subModules"),
         ProblemFilters.exclude[ReversedMissingMethodProblem]("akka.stream.impl.FlowModule.label"),
-        ProblemFilters.exclude[FinalClassProblem]("akka.stream.impl.fusing.GraphModule")
+        ProblemFilters.exclude[FinalClassProblem]("akka.stream.impl.fusing.GraphModule"),
+
+        // #15947 catch mailbox creation failures
+        ProblemFilters.exclude[DirectMissingMethodProblem]("akka.actor.RepointableActorRef.point"),
+        ProblemFilters.exclude[ReversedMissingMethodProblem]("akka.actor.dungeon.Dispatch.initWithFailure")
       )
     )
   }