‏Vasiliy Lanovoy‏

He was born Vasili Semenovich Lanovoy on January 16, 1934, in Moscow, Russia, USSR. His parents were Ukrainian peasants living near Odessa. They escaped from death in the famine of 1931 and survived by moving to Moscow. At the age of 7, Lanovoy went to visit his relatives near Odessa, but there he was caught by the advancing Nazi Armies during the Second World War. Young Lanovoy was abused by the Nazis who fired machine guns above his head to scare him, so he stammered for several years as a consequence. However, he had a dream of being an actor, regardless of his stammer and his heavy Ukrainian accent. He attended the acting class of Sergei Lvovich Stein at Moscow ZIL club, and made his stage debut in a play by Lev Kassil.

Young Lanovoy was torn between two professions, acting and journalism, and entered to study both. In 1953, at age 18, while a Journalism student of Moscow University, he was cast in "Problem Child", making his film debut. From 1953 - 1957 he studied acting at Shchukin Theatrical School of Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. There his classmate was Tatyana Samoylova, and they married in 1955, and later became co-stars in "Anna Karenina" by director Aleksandr Zarkhi. At the same time he appeared as Anatol Kuragin in "War and Peace" by director Sergey Bondarchuk.

Since 1957 Vasili Lanovoy has been member of Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. There his stage partners were such actors as Mikhail Ulyanov, Ruben Simonov, Boris Zakhava, Mikhail Astangov, Varvara Popova, Irina Kupchenko, Natalya Tenyakova, Yuliya Borisova, Lyudmila Maksakova, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Marianna Vertinskaya, Nina Ruslanova, Nikolai Plotnikov, Yuriy Yakovlev, Vladimir Etush, Vyacheslav Shalevich, Andrei Abrikosov, Grigori Abrikosov, Boris Babochkin, Nikolai Gritsenko, Nikolai Timofeyev, Aleksandr Grave, Evgeniy Karelskikh, Sergey Makovetskiy, and Ruben Simonov, among others. His most memorable stage performances were as Protasov in 'Deti Solntsa' (1968), as Oktavian in 'Antony and Cleopatra' (1975), and the title role in 'Kasanova' (1985). Since taking the role as Prince Calaf in 1963, Lanovoy has been delivering acclaimed performances in the legendary Vakhtangov's production of Carlo Gozzi's comedy 'Princess Turandot'.

Vasili Lanovoy was designated People's Actor of the USSR, was awarded Lenin's Prize (1980), and received numerous awards and decorations for his works on stage and in film. He is married to actress 'Irina Kupchenko', and the couple has two sons. Outside of his acting profession Lanovoy is fond of listening to classical music and singing Ukrainian songs together with his friends and family. In his 70s, he has been maintaining a good physical form through sports and pesco-vegetarian diet. He is living with his family in Moscow, Russia.