fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Vasily Borisovich Livanov MBE,[1] FMF, PAR (Russian: Василий Борисович Ливанов; born 19 July 1935), is a Soviet and Russian actor, animation and film director, screenwriter and writer most famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the Soviet TV series.[2] He was named People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1988.

Vasily Livanov MBE FMF PAR
Born	(1935-07-19) 19 July 1935 (age 87) Moscow, Soviet Union
Occupation	Actor, animation director, film director, screenwriter, writer
Years active	1958–present
Spouse	Elena Livanova (1973–present)
Parent(s)	Boris Livanov and Evgenia Livanova
Website	221b.ru

Early years

Vasily Livanov was born into a famous theatrical family. His paternal grandfather Nikolai Alexandrovich Livanov (1874–1949) was a Volga Cossack from Simbirsk who moved to Moscow in 1905 and performed at the Struysky Theatre under a pseudonym of Izvolsky; after the revolution he worked at the Mossovet and Lenkom Theatres. Vasily's father Boris Livanov (1904–1972) was also a prominent actor and stage director who served at the Moscow Art Theatre all his life, while his mother Eugenia Kazimirovna Livanova (née Prawdzic-Filipowicz) (1907–1978) was an artist who belonged to Polish szlachta.[3]

Vasily was brought up in the artistic milieu. Many famous actors who worked with his father, like Olga Knipper, Alla Tarasova, Vasily Kachalov (whom Livanov was named after), as well as Pyotr Konchalovsky, Boris Pasternak, Valery Chkalov were frequent guests at their house.[3][4] In 1940 his family was staying in Chernivtsi along with other Moscow actors, and his Polish nanny took him to the local Catholic church where he was baptized, presumably with his mother's permission. Today he belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church despite he never officially converted.[3]

His family spent the first war years in evacuation and in 1943 returned to Moscow.[3] In 1954 Vasily graduated from the Moscow Secondary Art School under the USSR Academy of Arts, and in 1958 he finished the acting courses at the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute. His film career started in 1959 with one of the leading roles in the Letter Never Sent.

The movie was shot in Taiga at −40 °C, and the director Mikhail Kalatozov decided that Livanov and Samoilova should voice their characters crying not in the studio, but outside, right in the woods. As a result, Livanov lost his voice, and in two weeks it returned as a unique hoarse tembre that would've become one of Livanov's trademarks ever since.[4]

From 1958 to 1959 he performed at the Vakhtangov Theatre, and from 1960 to 1964 – at the National Film Actors' Theatre. He also starred in the 1960 adaptation of Vladimir Korolenko's Blind Musician along with his father and the 1962 adaptation of Vasily Aksyonov's Colleagues that became his first real breakthrough.

Animation

In 1966 he finished the High Directors Courses where he studied under Mikhail Romm and joined Soyuzmultfilm as an animation director, screenwriter and voice actor. During the next ten years he wrote and directed several animated films, including Most, Most, Most, Most and The Blue Bird feature.[5]

Yet his biggest success came with The Bremen Town Musicians animated musical, a modernised adaptation of the eponymous folktale he created with Yuri Entin and Gennady Gladkov. Both parts showed heavy influence of rock and roll and hippie cultures which was unusual for the Soviet cinema. The first film was directed by Inessa Kovalevskaya, while the sequel On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians (1973) was directed by Livanov himself. The leading Soviet pop singer Muslim Magomayev voiced almost all characters in it which only added to the overwhelming popularity of the series.[6][7]

Livanov was also the voice behind multiple popular Soviet animated characters such as Gena the Crocodile from the Cheburashka series, Karlsson-on-the-Roof from the Soviet adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's fairy tale and Boa from 38 Parrots.[5]

Sherlock Holmes

In the late 1970s and in the 1980s, Livanov returned to film stardom in what became the greatest success of his acting career: the role of Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles and other Holmes TV series directed by Igor Maslennikov.[8][9]

Those movies were filmed between 1979 and 1986, with the latter four stories forming the plot of a standalone big-screen feature entitled The Twentieth Century Approaches. Vasily Livanov played Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin played Doctor Watson.

On 27 April 2007, a sculpture featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson as portrayed by Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin was opened on the Smolenskaya embankment alongside the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Moscow (sculptor Andrey Orlov).[10]

Writer

Apart from screenplays Vasily Livanov has been professionally writing books since the 1960s. He published novels, stories, fairy tales and memoirs, including biography books dedicated to Boris Livanov, Boris Pasternak and other people he personally knew.[11]

Personal life

Livanov was married twice. His first wife (1958–1970) was Alina Engelgardt, daughter of the acclaimed Soviet biochemist Vladimir Engelgardt. They had a daughter Anastasia. Since 1972 he has been married to Elena Artemievna Balabanova, an art director and animator. They have two sons, Boris and Nikolai. In 2009 Boris was charged with a murder of Igor Khromov whom he cut with a knife during a drunken brawl; he was imprisoned for nine years, but set free following a parole in 2015.[12] In June 2017 Maria Golubkina, an actress, daughter of Larisa Golubkina and stepdaughter of Andrei Mironov, announced her engagement to Boris Livanov, but in just a month they "decided to take a break".[13]

Vasily Livanov was a close friend of Vitaly Solomin and Rina Zelyonaya, who played Doctor Watson and Mrs. Hudson. As he writes in his memoir:

"It happens so that when someone passes away, we customarily treat his actions and related events as the thing of the past. But everything about my beloved closest friend and partner Vitaly Solomin has become a part of my way of life, my conscience, so for me it will become the thing of the past only when I pass away too."[14]

Honors and awards

• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1988)
• 4th Class Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (1 December 2005) — "For substantial contribution to the development of national cinema".[15]
• Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (20 February 2006) — "For service to the theatre and performing arts".[16]
• Order of Honour (27 October 2016) — "For great services in the development of national culture and arts, many years of fruitful activity".[17]
• Special Golden Eagle Award (27 January 2017) — "For outstanding contribution to the history of Russian cinema".[18]

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Original title	Role	Other
1959	Letter Never Sent	Неотправленное письмо	Andrei
1960	Resurrection	Воскресение	Kryltsov
	Blind Musician	Слепой музыкант	Pyotr
1962	Colleagues	Коллеги	Sasha Zelenin
1968	I Was Nineteen	Ich war neunzehn	Wadim Gejman
	Junior and Karlsson (animation)	Малыш и Карлсон	Karlsson-on-the-Roof (voice)
1969	Gena the Crocodile (animation)	Крокодил Гена	Gena the Crocodile (voice)
	The Bremen Town Musicians (animation)	Бременские музыканты		Screenwriter
	Ded Moroz and Summer (animation)	Дед Мороз и лето		Screenwriter
1970	Waterloo	Ватерлоо	officer
	Karlsson Returns (animation)	Карлсон вернулся	Karlsson-on-the-Roof (voice)
	The Blue Bird (animation)	Синяя птица	dog, miner (voices)	Director, screenwriter
1971	Cheburashka (animation)	Чебурашка	Gena the Crocodile (voice)
1973	On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians (animation)	По следам бременских музыкантов		Director, screenwriter
1974	Shapoklyak (animation)	Шапокляк	Gena the Crocodile (voice)
1975	The Captivating Star of Happiness	Звезда пленительного счастья	Nicholas I of Russia
1976	38 Parrots (animation)	38 попугаев	Boa (voice)
1977	The Steppe	Степь	Kazimir
1979	Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson	Шерлок Холмс и доктор Ватсон	Sherlock Holmes
1980	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson	Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона	Sherlock Holmes
1981	The Hound of the Baskervilles	Собака Баскервилей	Sherlock Holmes
	The Mystery of the Third Planet (animation)	Тайна третьей планеты	Gromozeka (voice)
	Dog in Boots (animation)	Пёс в сапогах	British detective (voice)
1983	The Treasures of Agra	Сокровища Агры	Sherlock Holmes
	Moon Rainbow	Лунная радуга	Galbraith
	Cheburashka Goes to School (animation)	Чебурашка идёт в школу	Gena the Crocodile (voice)
1985	Contract (animation)	Контракт	security alarm (voice)
1986	The Twentieth Century Approaches	Двадцатый век начинается	Sherlock Holmes
1987	Friend	Друг	Drug (voice)
1988	Pereval (animation)	Перевал	Boris (voice)
1997	Don Quixote Returns	Дон Кихот возвращается	Don Quixote	Director, screenwriter, producer
2000	The New Bremen Town Musicians	Новые бременские		Screenwriter
2005	The Master and Margarita	Мастер и Маргарита	Alexandr Stravinsky

References

External links

• (in English) Biography of Vasily Livanov
• (in English) The Sherlock Holmes Museum
• (in Russian) Internet site dedicated to Vasiliy Livanov
• (in English) A review of the Sherlock Holmes series
• Vasily Livanov at IMDb
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at IMDb
• (in English) The adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Russia
• (in Russian) 221b.ru - Russian site dedicated to Vasiliy Livanov

На других языках

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[de] Wassili Borissowitsch Liwanow

Wassili Borissowitsch Liwanow, OBE (russisch Василий Борисович Ливанов, wiss. Transliteration Vasilij Borisovič Livanov; * 19. Juli 1935 in Moskau, Sowjetunion) ist ein sowjetisch-russischer Schauspieler, Autor und Regisseur. 1981 wurde er zum Verdienten Künstler der Russischen SFSR (russisch Заслуженный артист РСФСР) und 1988 zum Volkskünstler der Russischen SFSR (russisch Народный артист РСФСР) ernannt.

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- [en] Vasily Livanov

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[ru] Ливанов, Василий Борисович

Васи́лий Бори́сович Лива́нов (род. 19 июля 1935, Москва, СССР) — советский и российский киноактёр, режиссёр кино и мультипликации, сценарист, писатель; народный артист РСФСР (1988).

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