Innokenty Smoktunovsky facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Innokenty Smoktunovsky HSL PAU
Smoktunovsky in 1943
Born	Innokenty Mikhaylovich Smoktunovich (1925-03-28)28 March 1925 Tatyanovka, Tomsk Governorate, RSFSR, USSR
Died	3 August 1994(1994-08-03) (aged 69) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Occupation	actor
Years active	1956–1994
Spouse(s)	Shulamith Kushnir
Children	3

Innokenty Mikhaylovich Smoktunovsky (Russian: Иннокентий Михайлович Смоктуновский; born Smoktunovich, 28 March 1925 – 3 August 1994) was a very famous Soviet actor. Many people called him the "king of Soviet actors" because of his amazing talent. He received important awards like People's Artist of the USSR in 1974 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990.

Early Life and Theatre

Smoktunovsky (left) with his brother Vladimir and aunt in 1930

Innokenty Smoktunovsky was born in a small village in Siberia. His family were farmers and were of Belarusian background.

During World War II, he served in the Red Army. After the war, in 1946, he started his acting career in a theatre in Krasnoyarsk. Later, he moved to Moscow to continue acting.

In 1957, a famous director named Georgy Tovstonogov invited him to join the Bolshoi Drama Theatre in Leningrad. There, he impressed everyone with his powerful performance as Prince Myshkin in Dostoyevsky's play The Idiot. Another one of his best theatre roles was playing the main character in Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich in 1973.

Film Career Highlights

Smoktunovsky as Hamlet with Anastasiya Vertinskaya on a 1966 Soviet stamp

Smoktunovsky's film career began with Mikhail Romm's movie Nine Days in One Year in 1962. Two years later, in 1964, he took on the famous role of Hamlet in Grigori Kozintsev's film based on Shakespeare's play. His performance was so good that even the famous actor Laurence Olivier praised him. Many critics thought Smoktunovsky's Hamlet was even better than Olivier's! He brought a unique mix of strength, kindness, and cleverness to the character.

Smoktunovsky became even more popular with audiences for his role as Yuri Detochkin in the comedy Beware of the Car (1966). This film showed his amazing talent for comedy. He also played many other important characters, including:

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the film Tchaikovsky (1969)
• Uncle Vanya in a film based on Chekhov's play (1970)
• The Narrator in Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror (1975)
• Salieri in Little Tragedies (1979)

In 1990, Smoktunovsky won the Nika Award for Best Actor. He passed away on August 3, 1994, at the age of 69. A small planet, 4926 Smoktunovskij, was named after him to honor his contributions to art.

Filmography

• Murder on Dante Street (1956) as Young fascist
• Soldiers (1956) as Lieutenant Farber
• Close to Us (1958) as Andrei
• Letter Never Sent (1960) as Konstantin Sabinin
• Until Next Spring (1960) as Aleksei Ruchyev
• After the Wedding (1962) as Narrator's voice
• Nine Days in One Year (1962) as Ilya Kulikov
• Mozart and Salieri (1962) as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Hamlet (1964) as Prince Hamlet
• On the Same Planet (1965) as Vladimir Lenin
• Beware of the Car (1966) as Yuri Detochkin
• Degree of Risk (1968) as Aleksandr Kirillov
• The Living Corpse (1968) as Ivan Petrovich
• Crime and Punishment (1969) as Porfiry Petrovich
• Tchaikovsky (1970) as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Uncle Vanya (1970) as Ivan "Uncle Vanya" Voinitsky
• Ilf and Petrov Rode a Tram (1972) as Tram passenger
• Taming of the Fire (1972) as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
• Moscow-Cassiopeia (1973) as I.O.O.
• The Heron and the Crane (1974) as Narrator's voice
• Daughters-Mothers (1974) as Vadim Antonovich Vasilyev
• A Lover's Romance (1974) as Trumpeter
• Teens in the Universe (1974) as I.O.O.
• Take Aim (1974) as Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Mirror (1975) as adult Aleksei's voice
• The Captivating Star of Happiness (1975) as Ivan Bogdanovich Zeidler
• They Fought for Their Country (1975) as Surgeon
• Twenty Days Without War (1976) as Vyacheslav's voice (played by Nikolai Grinko)
• Trust (1976) as Nikolay Bobrikov
• The Princess on a Pea (1977) as King
• The Steppe (1977) as Moisei Moiseyevich
• On Thursday and Never Again (1977) as Ivan Modestovich
• The Barrier (1979) as Antony Manev
• Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1979) as himself (cameo appearance)
• Little Tragedies (1979) as Antonio Salieri and Old Baron
• The Queen of Spades (1982) as Chekalinsky
• Dead Souls (1984) as Plyushkin
• Primary Russia (1985) as Emperor Justinian I
• The Last Road (1986) as Jacob van Heeckeren tot Enghuizen
• The Twentieth Century Approaches (1986) as Lord Thomas Bellinger
• Dark Eyes (1987) as Modest Petrovich
• Gardes-Marines, Ahead! (1987) as André-Hercule de Fleury
• First Encounter - Last Encounter (1987) as Counterintelligence colonel
• Mother (1989) as Governor
• Trap for a Lonely Man (1990) as Merluche
• Genius (1991) as Mafia leader Gilya
• Dandelion Wine (1997) as Colonel Freeley (voiced by Sergey Bezrukov; released posthumously)

See also

In Spanish: Innokenti Smoktunovski para niños