Vyacheslav Tikhonov

Vyacheslav Tikhonov

Tikhonov in 2003
Born Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov
8 February 1928
Pavlovsky Posad, Soviet Union
Died 4 December 2009 (aged 81)
Moscow, Russia
Occupation Actor
Years active 1948–2009
Spouse(s) Nonna Mordyukova
(1948–1963)
Tamara Tikhonova
(1968–2009)
Website
www.vtikhonov.ru
Vyacheslav Tikhonov (front row, seated next to Yuri Gagarin) guests a Soviet New Year TV show in 1963.
Vyacheslav Tikhonov's grave

Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Tikhonov (Russian: Вячесла́в Васи́льевич Ти́хонов; 8 February 1928 in Pavlovsky Posad — 4 December 2009 in Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian actor whose best known role was as Soviet spy, Stierlitz in the television series Seventeen Moments of Spring. He was a recipient of numerous state awards, including the titles of People's Artist of the USSR (1974) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1982).

Biography

He was born in Pavlovsky Posad near Moscow. His mother was a kindergarten teacher and his father an engineer in the local textile factory.[1] Vyacheslav dreamed of acting but his parents envisioned a different career, and during the war he worked in a munitions factory.[1] After employment as a metal worker, he began [training for an] acting career in 1945.[2] by entering, not without difficulty, the Actors’ Faculty of VGIK. After graduating VGIK with honours in 1950, he began his acting career on stage of Theatre Studio of Film Actor, where he worked for six years.

In 1948 he married Nonna Mordyukova, a popular actress at the time (the couple had one son, Vladimir,[3] also an actor who died in 1990). The marriage was dissolved in 1963.[4] Later Tikhonov married a second time to Tamara Ivanovna Tikhonova and had one child with her, Anna Tikhonova[5] (also an actor) in 1969.[6]

He died on 4 December 2009 in Moscow, Russia.[2] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to Tikhonov's family.[2]

Career

Tikhonov made his film debut in 1948. For the next few years, he appeared in relatively low-profile films and at the Film Actors' Studio Theatre in Smolensk.[1] One of his notable roles there was the bear in the Erast Garin production of Evgeny Shvarts's fairy-tale An Ordinary Miracle.[1]

Tikhonov became more well-known with the release of the rural family drama Delo bylo v Penkove (It Happened in Penkovo, 1958), which was followed by several wartime dramas: Maiskie Zvyozdy (May Stars, 1959), set in Prague, and Na Semi Vetrakh (On the Seven Winds, 1962), on the Western front.[1] In Yevgeny Tashkov's Zhazhda (Thirst, 1959), based on real events, Tikhonov, in the first of his spy roles, portrays a scout in an operation to free an Odessa water plant from the Nazis.[1]

In Dve Zhizni (Two Lives, 1961) Tikhonov plays the less fortunate of two men who unwittingly meet in France, 40-odd years after fighting on opposite sides of the 1917 Revolution.[1] Rostotsky's Dozhivyom do Ponedelnika (We'll Live Till Monday 1968), in which a history teacher plans to defend a student at a disciplinary meeting, earned Tikhonov a state prize.[1] In 1979 Rostotsky made a documentary about his friend, called Profession: film actor."[1]

Tikhonov also played Prince Andrei Bolkonski in the Oscar-winning adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace (1968) by Sergei Bondarchuk (who played Bezukhov). But Tikhonov reportedly got the role only at the suggestion of the Minister of Culture when Innokenty Smoktunovsky opted for Kozintsev's Hamlet and Oleg Strizhenov was also unavailable.[1]

In 1973, Tikhonov starred in the role for which he is most known for in the former Soviet republics, when director Tatiana Lioznova chose him over Smoktunovsky to star in an adaptation of Yulian Semyonov's novel Seventeen Moments of Spring[1] as Standartenführer Stierlitz. The 17 moments are 17 days in the spring of 1945 just before the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II and centers around attempts by some of the Soviet Union's men in Germany to thwart secret peace talks between the Nazis and the U.S. and Britain.[2] The film enjoyed enormous popularity among Russian viewers of several generations. Prior to that, however, it had faced the risk of remaining unknown: Mikhail Suslov had opposed the film to go on general release. He had claimed that the film was not showing the feat of the Soviet people in the war. Fortunately, the decision to release the would-be classic film was supported by KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov.[1] Although several of Semyonov's Stierlitz novels were adapted for the screen, Tikhonov did not return, perhaps feeling that the original series was definitive.[1] The role won him the title People's Artist of the USSR, one of a number of awards.[1]

In 1976, [Tikhonov] rejoined Bondarchuk in an adaptation of Sholokhov's They Fought for Their Country.[1] It suited Tikhonov by concentrating on character rather than histrionics and won him another state prize in the year that he finally joined the Communist Party.[1] 1977 saw a change of pace with Rostotsky's Oscar-nominated Beliy Bim Chernoe Ukho (White Bim the Black Ear), in which Tikhonov played a middle-aged writer who is "adopted" by a non-pedigree setter puppy.[1]

Though he was often typecast as militiamen or spies, there were good roles among them, such as the KGB general in the cold-war thriller TASS upolnomochen zayavit (Tass is authorised to announce, 1984), another television series based on a Semyonov novel.[1] In later years he was able to display a wider range, including the bishop in Besy, a film version of Dostoyevsky's The Devils (1992) and Charlemagne, in the Ubit Drakona, (To Kill a Dragon, 1998) after Evgeny Shvarts's wartime satire.[1] Shvarts was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen, and Tikhonov appeared in Eldar Ryazanov's fantasy-biography of the Danish fabulist, Andersen: Life Without Love (2006), playing God.[1] In 8 February 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, third degree, to Tikhonov.[7]

Tikhonov appeared in Nikita Mikhalkov's Oscar-winning Burnt By the Sun (1994) and also appeared in the 2010 sequel, which finished shooting before his death.

Filmography

Year Film Russian Title Role Other notes
1948The Young GuardМолодая гвардияVolodya OsmukhinDirected by Sergei Gerasimov
Won the Stalin Prize in 1949
1950In Peaceful TimeВ мирные дниsailor Volodya Grinevsky, torpedoman
1951Taras ShevchenkoТарас ШевченкоRepresentative of the St Petersburg youth
1952MaximkaМаксимкаLieutenant Goreilov
1954This should never be forgottenОб этом забывать нельзяstudent Rostaslav Danchenko
1955Stars on the wings of an airplaneЗвёзды на крыльяхpilot Olexa Lavrinets
1956The Heart is Beating AgainСердце бьётся вновьLeonid V.Golubev
1957It Happened in PenkovoДело было в ПеньковеMatvey Morozov
1958Extraordinary IncidentЧП. Чрезвычайное происшествиеa sailor Viktor Raisky
1959May StarsМайские звёздыlieutenant Andrew Rukavichkin
1959ThirstЖаждаlieutenant Oleg Bezborodko
1960Midshipman PaninМичман ПанинMidshipman Basil Panin
1961Two LivesДве жизниDuke Sergei Nashchekin
1962Seven WindsНа семи ветрахCaptain Vyacheslav Suzdalev
1963Optimistic TragedyОптимистическая трагедияAlexei, anarchist-sailor
1965A Hero of Our TimeГерой нашего времениGrigory Alexandrovich Pechorin (voice)
1968War and PeaceВойна и мирAndrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky
1968We'll Live Till MondayДоживём до понедельникаIlya Semyonovich Melnikov - History Teacher
1969Family HappinessСемейное счастьеNikolai Andreyevich Kapitonov, notary
1970The RoundaboutКарусельmaster of the house
1970One of usОдин из насspy Keller (voice)
1971Yegor Bulychyov and OthersЕгор Булычов и другиеparson Pavlin
1971Man on the other handЧеловек с другой стороныVictor Krimov
1971Hold on to the cloudsДержись за облакаVladimir Sevastiyanov (voice)
1974Front Without FlanksФронт без фланговMajor Ivan Petrovich Mlinsky
1975They Fought for Their CountryОни сражались за РодинуNikolay Strel'tsov
1975Story of a Human HeartПовесть о человеческом сердце(author's text)
1976...And Other Officials... И другие официальные лицаKostantin Pavlovich Ivanov
1977White Bim Black EarБелый Бим Черное ухоIvan Ivanovich (Master)
1977Front behind the front LineФронт за линией фронтаColonel Ivan Petrovich Mlinsky
1977DialogueДиалогAlexander Yershov
1977Drove through the streets of bureauПо улицам комод водилиmaster of bureau
1981Unpaid VacationОтпуск за свой счёт(narration)
1981The Rear FrontФронт в тылу врагаColonel Ivan Petrovich Mlinsky
1984European StoryЕвропейская историяPeter Losser, political commentator
1987The AppealАпелляцияDmitry V. Plotnikov
1988To Kill a DragonУбить драконаCharlemagne
1989Love and PrivilegesЛюбовь с привилегиямиKonstantin Gavrilovic Kozhemjakin
1991The Ghosts of the Green RoomПризраки зелёной комнатыMartin Chiverel
1992The PossessedБесыTikhon, Bishop retired
1993The Codex of DisgraceКодекс бесчестияaccountant Chugunov
1993IncomparableНесравненнаяKholev
1993Provincial BenefitПровинциальный бенефисIvan Semenovich Velikatov
1994A Boulevard RomanceБульварный романStanislav Vasil'evich Kandinski
1994Burnt by the SunУтомлённые солнцемVsevolod Konstantinovich
1995The Codex of Silence 2: Trace of black fishКодекс молчания 2: След чёрной рыбыpolice colonel Agaev (voice)
1995An AdventureАвантюраCameo appearance
1996Sweet Friend of Years Forgotten Long Ago...Милый друг давно забытых лет...Fedor Fedorovich
1998Composition for Victory DayСочинение ко Дню ПобедыLev Morgulis
2001Berlin express trainБерлинский экспрессGeorgy Astakhov
2006Eyes of the WolfГлазами волкаold scientist
2006Andersen. A life without loveАндерсен. Жизнь без любвиGod
Year Title Russian Title Role Other notes
1973Seventeen Moments of SpringСемнадцать мгновений весныMax Otto von Stierlitz
1984TASS Is Authorized to Declare...ТАСС уполномочен заявить...KGB General Konstantinov
1998Waiting RoomЗал ожиданияMikhail Zaitsev, director of the orphanage

References

External links

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