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Boris Nikolayevich Livanov (; – 22 September 1972) was a
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
actor
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
and
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
.
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...
(1948).
(1979) He was a member of the
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...
from 1924 through 1972.
Biography
Livanov was born in Moscow into a family of the well-known Russian actor Nikolai Aleksandrovich Livanov (1874—1949), a
Volga Cossack from
Simbirsk
Ulyanovsk,, , known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO City of Literature since 2015.
The city wa ...
who moved to Moscow and performed under a pseudonym of Izvolsky.
['']Vasily Livanov
Vasily Borisovich Livanov (; born 19 July 1935), MBE, is a Soviet and Russian film actor, animation and film director, screenwriter and writer most famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the Soviet TV series. He was named People's Artist of ...
(2013)''. The Path from Childhood. Echo of One Dash. — Moscow: AST, 256 pages.
When Boris was 16, he ran away from home and joined the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
to fight
Basmachi
The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...
in
Turkestan
Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...
, but soon returned to Moscow and enrolled in the 4th Studio of the
Moscow Art Theatre
The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; , ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was founded in by the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright ...
to study acting. He graduated in 1924 and became a member of the theatrical troupe. He performed in both dramatic and comedy roles; his expressive acting and wide range of emotions soon turned him into one of the leading and most respected actors. Among his notable roles were Nozdryov from ''
Dead Souls
''Dead Souls'' ( , pre-reform spelling: ) is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. The novel chronicles the travels and adventures of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov ...
'', Chatsky from ''
Woe from Wit
''Woe from Wit'' (, also translated as "The Woes of Wit", "Wit Works Woe", ''Wit's End'', and so forth) is Alexander Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a ...
'', Count Almaviva from
''The Marriage of Figaro'', Vassily Solyony from
''Three Sisters'' and others.
Livanov first appeared in cinema in 1924 as Morozko in the
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
adaptation of the same name. In 1927 he performed his first serious roles in two historical-revolution films: ''
Kastus Kalinovskiy'' and ''
October: Ten Days That Shook the World''. During the 1930s he played Dubrovsky in the film version of
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
's novel
''Dubrovsky'' and
Dmitry Pozharsky
Dmitry Mikhaylovich Pozharsky ( rus, Дми́трий Миха́йлович Пожа́рский, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ pɐˈʐarskʲɪj; 17 October 1577 – 30 April 1642) was a Tsardom of Russia, Russian prince known for his ...
in the ''
Minin and Pozharsky'' historical epic (he was awarded his first
Stalin Prize for this role), although his most famous performance of that time was Mikhail Bocharov in the ''Baltic Deputy'' biographical movie based on the life of
Kliment Timiryazev
Kliment Arkadievich Timiryazev, sometimes Timiriazev (; – 28 April 1920) was a Russian botanist and physiologist and a major proponent of thought of Charles Darwin in Russia. He founded a faculty of plant physiology and a laboratory at the P ...
(portrayed by
Nikolay Cherkasov).
With the start of the
Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...
, Livanov informed the administration of the theater that he was going to join the Red Army and head to war, but was told that the actors of the leading Moscow theaters couldn't be mobilized by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's orders. During the
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...
his family was evacuated, yet he chose to stay in the city and perform for the soldiers at the front line.
After the war he continued his theater and movie career. He was named
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...
in 1948. In 1953, Livanov staged his first play Mikhailo Lomonosov as a
theatre director
A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...
, where he also performed the main part of
Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; , ; – ) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of ...
. In two years it was adapted into a movie by Aleksandr Ivanov. Among his other works were stage adaptations of ''
The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' ( rus, Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy, ˈbratʲjə kərɐˈmazəvɨ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly ...
'' novel (also played Dmitri Karamazov's part),
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...
's ''Yegor Bulychov and Others'', ''
The Seagull
''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...
'' by
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
and other plays.
Livanov was married to Yevgeniya Kazimirovna Livanova (née Prawdzic-Filipowicz) who belonged to an old
szlachta
The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...
family.
Their son
Vasily Livanov
Vasily Borisovich Livanov (; born 19 July 1935), MBE, is a Soviet and Russian film actor, animation and film director, screenwriter and writer most famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the Soviet TV series. He was named People's Artist of ...
also became a popular Russian actor, screenwriter, director of live action and animated movies. He is most famous for his portrait of
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
in the
Soviet mini-series.
Boris Livanov was also known for drawing
caricature
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...
s on everything that surrounded him. According to his son, he was so good at it that the famous trio
Kukryniksy asked him to join them as the fourth artist. He left thousands of caricatures after his death. Some of them were included with the autobiographical book written by Vasily Livanov in 2013.
Livanov died in Moscow on September 22, 1972. He was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery
Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site.
History
The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...
.
Boris Livanov's tomb
/ref>
Awards
*Honored Artist of the RSFSR
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (, ''Zasluzhenny artist RSFSR'') was an honorary title granted to Soviet artists, including theatre and film directors, choreographers, music performers, and orchestra conductors, who had outstanding achievements in the ...
(1933)
*People's Artist of the RSFSR
People's Artist of the RSFSR (, ''Narodnyj artist RSFSR'') was an honorary title granted to Soviet Union artists, including theatre and film directors, actors, choreographers, music performers, and orchestra conductors, who had outstanding achiev ...
(1938)
*People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...
(1948)
*Order of the Badge of Honour
The Order of the Badge of Honour () was a civilian award of the Soviet Union.
It was established on 25 November 1935, and was conferred on citizens of the USSR for outstanding achievements in sports, production, scientific research and socia ...
(1938)
*Four Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1937, 1948, 1954, 1971)
*Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...
(1964)
*USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...
(1970) for the stage work
*I Class Stalin Prize (1941) for '' Minin and Pozharsky''
*I Class Stalin Prize (1942) for ''Kremlin Сhimes''
*II Class Stalin Prize (1947) for '' Cruiser 'Varyag'''
*I Class Stalin Prize (1949) for ''Green Street''
*I Class Stalin Prize (1950) for ''Alien Shadow''
*
*Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"
The Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" () was a state commemorative medal of the Soviet Union established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on September 20, 1947 and bestowed to prominent Sovie ...
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
To Be Remembered. Boris Livanov
documentary by Leonid Filatov
Leonid Alekseyevich Filatov ( rus, Леонид Алексеевич Филатов, p=lʲɪɐˈnʲit əlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ fʲɪˈlatəf, a=Lyeonid Alyeksyeyevich Filatov.ru.vorb.oga; 24 December 1946 – 26 October 2003) was a Soviet an ...
, 2003 (in Russian)
Drawings and Caricatures. Boris Livanov
documentary by Russia-K
Russia-K ( "Russia - Culture") is a Russian nationwide not-for-profit television channel that broadcasts shows regarding arts and culture. It belongs to the state-controlled VGTRK group.
History
The creation of ''Kultura'' channel was authoris ...
, 2004 (in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livanov, Boris
1904 births
1972 deaths
20th-century Russian male actors
Male actors from Moscow
Theatre directors from Moscow
Honored Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the RSFSR
People's Artists of the USSR
Recipients of the Stalin Prize
Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour
Recipients of the Order of Lenin
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Recipients of the USSR State Prize
Russian male film actors
Russian male stage actors
Russian theatre directors
Soviet male film actors
Soviet male stage actors
Soviet theatre directors
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery