Vasily Lanovoy

Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy (Russian: Василий Семенович Лановой) (born 1934) is a Soviet and Russian actor who works in the Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow. He is also known as the President of Artek Festival of Films for Children. Lanovoy's honours include the KGB Prize, the Lenin Prize, and the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

Lanovoy specialized in playing bold, dashing characters, combining heroic bravado with a sensitivity typical of Russian heroes, a tendency evident in many of his early features, such as A Certificate of Maturity (1954) and Pavel Korchagin (1956).

Lanovoy's many film roles from the 1960s include Anatole Kuragin in Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace and Count Vronsky in the screen version of Anna Karenina. By this time, he has tried to create complex psychological portraits of his characters. His best known films from the 1970s were Officers (1971) and Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973). In recent years, he has appeared primarily in the roles of Communist party bosses, such as Yuri Andropov in the 2005 TV series Brezhnev.

Lanovoy is married to Irina Kupchenko, herself a famous actress. His first wife was another film star, Tatiana Samoilova, best known for her leading part in The Cranes Are Flying.

Honours and awards

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

1971 - Best Actor of the year, by a poll of the magazine "Soviet Screen" for the role of "Ivan" in the film "Barabbas Officers"

1978 - People's Artist of the RSFSR

1980 - Lenin Prize - for participation in the documentary film "The Great Patriotic War"

1983 - Award of the KGB - for the film "Fight at the crossroads"

1984 - Prize of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs - for the film "Proceed to eliminate"

1985 - People's Artist of USSR

1994 - Order of Friendship of Peoples - for merits in development of theatrical art

2001 - Order of Honour

2004 - Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th class - for his great contribution to the development of theatrical art

2004 - Order of Merit, 3rd class (Ukraine) - for high professionalism and considerable contribution to the development of Russian-Ukrainian cultural relations

2008 - Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class - for his contribution to the development of domestic theatrical and cinematic arts, a multi-year social work

2008 - Special Prize of the President of Belarus "for preserving and developing traditions of spirituality in the cinema"

2009 - "Great Literary Prize of Russia" (Russian Writers' Union), the prize "For the benefit of Russia" for his outstanding contribution to the development of Russian culture

2010 - Tsarskoselskaya art prize

See also

• Going Inside a Storm (1965 film)
• Solaris (1968 TV film)

External links

• Vasily Lanovoy at the Internet Movie Database
• Vasily Lanovoy on the Vakhtangov Theatre webpage
• Photographs and interviews