Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy

Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy was born on Mar 18, 1925 in Russia]. Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy's big-screen debut came with Ubiystvo na ulitse Dante directed by Mikhail Romm in 1956, strarring Molodoy fashist (as I. Smoktunovskiy). Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy is known for Vino iz oduvanchikov directed by Igor Apasyan, Andrei Novikov stars as Douglas Spaulding and Sergei Kuznetsov as Tom Spaulding. Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy has got 8 awards and 2 nominations so far. The most recent award Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy achieved is Sozvezdie. The upcoming new tvshow Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy plays is Vino iz oduvanchikov - Season 1 which will be released on Jan 01, 1997.

Innokenti Smoktunovsky (birth name Smoktunovich) was born in Siberian village of Tatianovka near Tomsk in 1925. There were some speculations that his ancestors were of Polish nobility or of Jewish ethnicity and that they were exiled to Siberia for participating in the January Uprising of 1863. But, according to Smoktunovsky's own words, his ancestors were Belarusian peasants who were sent to Siberia after his grand-grandfather - a guard in the Bialowieza Forest - shot a wisent without permission. His father was killed in WWII. Smoktunovsky was drafted in the Red Army during WWII and was seized by the Nazis as a POW. He was on the road to a concentration camp, but managed to escape from the Nazis. He joined the partisans and served until the end of WWII. After the war he was under suspicion as a former POW and his career was limited to Siberia.He studied acting for one year at the drama-studio of the Krasnoyarsk Drama Theater (1946). He found employment at the Norilsk Zapolyarny Drama Theater, where his friend and partner was Georgi Zhzhyonov, among other exiled actors. Both friends later starred in 'Beregis avtomobilya (1966)', directed by Eldar Ryazanov. But his film career started with director Mikhail Romm in 'Ubiystvo na ulitse Dante (1956), and in 'Soldaty (1956)' with director 'Aleksandr Ivanov'.Smoktunovsky was praised by Laurence Olivier for the leading role in 'Hamlet (1964)', a B&W screen version directed by Grigoriy Kozintsev. Leading roles in Tchaikovsky (1969), 'Uncle Vanya (1970)', were among the highlights in film career of this great Russian actor. He worked with Georgi Tovstonogov from 1957-72 on stage of the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) in Leningrad. He later moved to Moscow, where he worked at the Maly Theater and at the Moscow Art Theater (MKHAT). Smoktunovsky wrote an autobiographical book titled "They left me alive", in which he described his survival in Siberia, in WWII, and back again in Siberia, where he started his brilliant acting career.