Sergey Bondarchuk


Actor, Director

About

Also Known As
Serghey Bondarchuk
Birth Place
Ukraine
Born
September 25, 1920
Died
October 20, 1994

Biography

Leading post-WWII actor who later turned to directing with epic reults. While studying under Sergei Gerasimov, Bondarchuk was cast with other students in the director's "The Young Guard" (1948) and later took lead roles in such noted Soviet films as "Taras Shevchenko" (1951) and "Othello" (1955), excelling at tragic, heroic parts. He made his directing debut with the audacious "Destiny o...

Family & Companions

Irina Skobtseva
Wife
Actor. Played Desdemona opposite husband in Yutkevich's "Othello" (1955).

Biography

Leading post-WWII actor who later turned to directing with epic reults. While studying under Sergei Gerasimov, Bondarchuk was cast with other students in the director's "The Young Guard" (1948) and later took lead roles in such noted Soviet films as "Taras Shevchenko" (1951) and "Othello" (1955), excelling at tragic, heroic parts.

He made his directing debut with the audacious "Destiny of a Man" (1959), in which he stars as an ordinary, unheroic soldier struggling to survive in a German POW camp. Bondarchuk's compelling performance helped the film win the top prize at that year's Moscow Film Festival and earned international acclaim for the director.

After being cast as a Russian POW who escapes from a German camp in Roberto Rossellini's "Era Notte a Roma" (1960), Bondarchuk took on the job of directing the Soviet Union's grandest film production, and the world's most expensive (estimated at $100,000,000)--Tolstoy's "War and Peace."

The eight-hour-long resulting film was originally released in three parts, one part per year from 1965 to 1967. Shot in 70mm wide-screen and color, it is a truly epic achievement, with Bondarchuk starring as Pierre and creating a brilliant visual correlative to Tolstoy's prose. "War and Peace" earned the 1968 Academy Award for best foreign film and is considered one of the finest literary adaptations in cinema history.

In 1970 Bondarchuk began teaching drama at VGIK while continuing to direct and act. His subsequent films, including the epics "Waterloo" (1970) and "Boris Godunov" (1986), did not lived up to his earlier achievements, though they bear the stamp of a mature, accomplished artist.

Filmography

 

Director (Feature Film)

...and Quiet Flows the Don (2006)
Director
Boris Godunov (1986)
Director
Ten Days That Shook the World (1983)
Director
The Steppe (1978)
Director
Oni srazhalis za rodinu (1975)
Director
Oni Srajalis Za Rodinou (1975)
Director
War and Peace (1968)
Director
War and Peace Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1966)
Director
War and Peace Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1966)
Director
War and Peace Part III: The Year 1812 (1966)
Director
War and Peace Part II: Natasha Rostova (1966)
Director
Fate of a Man (1961)
Director

Cast (Feature Film)

La Batalla de los Tres Reyes (1990)
Boris Godunov (1986)
Boris Godunov
Otietz Sergii (1978)
Father Serge
The Steppe (1978)
Vrhovi Zelengore (1976)
Commissar
Oni Srajalis Za Rodinou (1975)
Dyadya Vanya (1971)
War and Peace (1968)
Pierre Bezukhov
War and Peace Part II: Natasha Rostova (1966)
Pierre Bezukhov
War and Peace Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1966)
Pierre Bezukhov
War and Peace Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1966)
Pierre Bezukhov
War and Peace Part III: The Year 1812 (1966)
Pierre Bezukhov
A Summer To Remember (1961)
Korostelyov
Fate of a Man (1961)
Andrey Sokolov

Writer (Feature Film)

...and Quiet Flows the Don (2006)
Screenplay
Boris Godunov (1986)
Screenwriter
Ten Days That Shook the World (1983)
Screenplay
The Steppe (1978)
Screenplay
Oni Srajalis Za Rodinou (1975)
Screenplay
War and Peace (1968)
Screenwriter
War and Peace Part II: Natasha Rostova (1966)
Screenplay
War and Peace Part IV: Pierre Bezukhov (1966)
Screenplay
War and Peace Part III: The Year 1812 (1966)
Screenplay
War and Peace Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky (1966)
Screenplay

Life Events

1948

Film acting debut in Sergei Gerasimov's "The Young Guard"

1959

Film directing debut (also actor), "Subda Cheloveka/Destiny of a Man"

Family

Natalia Bondarchuk
Daughter
Actor.

Companions

Irina Skobtseva
Wife
Actor. Played Desdemona opposite husband in Yutkevich's "Othello" (1955).

Bibliography