Oleg Yankovsky

Oleg Yankovsky
Oleg Yankovsky, May 2007
Born	Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky 23 February 1944(1944-02-23) Jezkazgan, Kazakh SSR, USSR
Died	20 May 2009(2009-05-20) (aged 65) Moscow, Russia
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1965–2009
Spouse	Lyudmila Zorina (1962–2009)

Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky (Russian: Олег Иванович Янковский) (February 23, 1944, Jezkazgan, Kazakh SSR, USSR – May 20, 2009, Moscow, Russia^[1]) was a Soviet/Russian actor who has excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals. In 1991, he became, together with Alla Pugacheva, the last person to be named a People's Artist of the USSR.

Life

Born into a noble family of Polish stock, son of Life-Guards Semenovsky regiment's Stabskapitän, Oleg Yankovsky formed an ambition to emulate his brother Rostislav and joined the Saratov Drama Theatre in 1965. His film career was launched two years later, when he was cast in two movies about World War II, namely The Shield and the Sword (Shchit i mech) (1968) by director Vladimir Basov and Two Comrades Were Serving (Sluzhili dva tovarishcha) (1968) by Yevgeni Karelov.

During his remarkably prolific screen career, Yankovsky appeared in many film adaptations of Russian classics, notably My Sweet and Tender Beast (1977) and The Kreutzer Sonata (1987). A leading actor of Mark Zakharov's Lenkom Theatre since 1975, he starred in the TV versions of the theatre's productions, An Ordinary Miracle (1978) and The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) being the most notable. For his role in Roman Balayan's Flights in Dreams and Reality (1984) Yankovsky was awarded the USSR State Prize. He has been better known abroad for his parts in Tarkovsky's movies The Mirror (as the father) and Nostalghia (in the main role).

In the early 1990s Oleg Yankovsky also played quite different roles in Georgi Daneliya’s tragic comedy The Passport (1990) and in Karen Shakhnazarov’s historical and psychological drama The Assassin of the Tsar (Tsareubiytsa) (1991).

Starting in 1993, Yankovsky ran the Kinotavr Film Festival in Sochi. He continued to receive awards for his work with several Nika Awards from the Russian Film Academy for his directorial debut Come Look At Me (2001) and Valery Todorovsky's Lyubovnik (2002). He appeared as Count Pahlen in Poor, Poor Pavel (2004) and as Komarovsky in a TV adaptation of Doctor Zhivago (2006), directed by Oleg Menshikov.

The last film Yankovsky appeared in was Tsar, which was released in 2009 and demonstrated at the Cannes Film Festival on the 17th of May 2009, just three days before his death. Yankovsky played the sophisticated role of Metropolitan Philipp in his last film.

Filmography

• Two Comrades Were Serving (1968) as Andrei Nekrasov
• The Mirror (1975) as the father
• A Hunting Accident (1977)
• An Ordinary Miracle (1978) as The Wizard
• The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) as Baron Münchhausen
• The Hound of the Baskervilles as Stapleton
• Vlyublyon po sobstvennomu zhelaniyu (1983)
• Flights in Dreams and Reality (1984)
• The Kreutzer Sonata (1987)
• Nostalghia (1983) as Andrei Gorchakov
• The Man Who Cried (2000)
• Come Look At Me (2001)
• Lyubovnik (2002)
• Poor, Poor Pavel (2003) as Count Pahlen
• Doctor Zhivago (2006) as Komarovsky
• Stilyagi (2008) as Fred's father
• Anna Karenina (2009) as Alexei Karenin
• Tsar (2009) as Metropolitan Philip Kolychev

Death

On May 20, 2009 Yankovsky died from pancreatic cancer in Moscow, aged 65. A civil funeral took place at Lenkom theater. His burial was held on May 22, 2009, at Novodevichy Cemetery in presence of his close relatives only.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Умер Олег Янковский" (in Russian). NEWSru.com. May 20, 2009. http://txt.newsru.com/cinema/20may2009/oleg.html. Retrieved May 20, 2009. 

External links

• Oleg Yankovsky at the Internet Movie Database
• Oleg Yankovsky, Russian Film Star, Dies at 65 in the New York Times
• Obituary: Oleg Yankovsky in the Guardian
• Obituary in the Independent
• Obituary by the Associated Press on Legacy.com
• Biography of Oleg Yankovsky (English)

Persondata
Name	Yankovsky, Oleg
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 23, 1944
Place of birth	Jezkazgan, Kazakh SSR, USSR
Date of death	May 20, 2009
Place of death	Moscow, Russia