Vasily Lanovoy

Vasily Lanovoy
Василий Лановой
Born January 16, 1934
Moscow, USSR, Russia
Occupation Stage and film actor
Years active 1954–present
Spouse(s) Tatyana Samoylova
Tamara Zyablova
Irina Kupchenko

Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy (Russian: Василий Семенович Лановой; Ukrainian: Василь Семенович Лановий, Vasyl Semenovych Lanovyi) (born 1934) is a popular Soviet and Russian actor of Ukrainian descent 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.


Acting career

Lanovoy came to prominence through 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.

However, he is best known for his roles in iconic 1970s World War II-themed films. Lanovoy portrayed Ivan Varavva, one of the main characters in the 1971 saga Officers which became a life-motivating movie for the Soviet Army officers. He also played a supporting role of SS General Karl Wolff in the cult spy thriller TV-series Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973).

In 2000s, Lanovoy has appeared primarily in the roles of Soviet-era party bosses, such as Yuri Andropov in the 2005 TV series Brezhnev. In 2012 played the role of Cardinal Richeliau in Russian minisereis/movie The Three Musketeers.

Personal life

Lanovoy was born to a family of Ukrainian peasants and was known as Vasyl Lanovyi in his child years. His parents, originally from the rural Odessa Oblast, escaped the Holodomor famine to Moscow. However, the World War II Nazi/Romanian occupation caught little Vasyl in southern Ukraine with his village relatives while his parents were evacuated to the Soviet rear as workers with a military-critical industrial company. Lanovoy has always positioned himself as a Ukrainian loyal to national culture, especially the Ukrainian folk music pieces of which he traditionally sings at his individual concerts.

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

Honours and awards

1971 - Best Actor of the year, by a poll of the Sovetsky Ekran magazine (for the film "Officers")
1978 - People's Artist of the RSFSR
1980 - Lenin Prize - for participation in the documentary film "The Great Patriotic War"
1983 - KGB Award - 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

External links

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