Leonid Kuravlyov

Leonid Kuravlyov (85)

1936-10-08 - 2022-01-30 | Moscow, RSFSR, USSR

Soviet and Russian film actor. He became a People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1976. Kuravlyov was born in Moscow into a working-class family. His father Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Kuravlyov (1909–1979) worked as a locksmith at the Salyut Machine-Building Association and his mother Valentina Dmitriyevna Kuravlyova (1916–1993) was a hairdresser. In 1941 with the start of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War) his mother was arrested on false report, accused of counter-revolutionary activity (Article 58) and exiled to Karaganda, Kazakh SSR to work at the local plant. In five years she was freed without a right to live in Moscow and sent to Zasheyek, Murmansk Oblast in the Russian far north where she continued working as a hairdresser. In 1948 she managed to get a permission to see her son who spent a year with her at Zasheyek, and in 1951 she finally returned to Moscow. In 1955 Kuravlyov entered VGIK to study acting under Boris Bibikov. He graduated in 1960 and joined the Theater Studio of Film Actors. He made his first movie appearances while still a student. In 1960 he was noted by Vasily Shukshin and took part in his diploma film Reported From Lebyazhye. In 1961 they both starred in the popular melodrama When the Trees Were Tall, and in 1964 Shukshin gave him the leading role in his comedy movie There Is Such a Lad which brought Kuravlyov true fame and which he considered to be the start of his successful movie career. He also acted in Your Son and Brother (1965) and felt so grateful for what the director did for him that he later named his son after Shukshin. The role of Shura Balaganov in Mikhail Schweitzer’s comedy The Little Golden Calf based on the book by Ilf and Petrov was one of his first successful roles: he managed to create an image of a brash yet charming petty thief. His other notable roles of that period include Khoma Brut in one of the first Soviet horror movies Viy (1967), antagonist Sorokin in a psychological melodrama Not Under the Jurisdiction (1969), Robinson Crusoe in Stanislav Govorukhin’s Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1972), a Nazi officer Kurt Eismann in Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973) and Lavr Mironovich in Pyotr Todorovsky’s The Last Victim (1975). In the 1970s he appeared in three to four films per year. Even though Kuravlyov was adept at playing serious dramatic roles, he is still best known for his leading roles in top-grossing comedy movies such as Afonya (1975) by Georgiy Daneliya (11th highest-grossing Soviet film, highest grossing film of the year, 62.2 mln viewers), Leonid Gaidai’s Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973, 17th highest-grossing film, 60 mln viewers) and It Can’t Be! (1975, 46th highest-grossing film with 46.9 mln viewers), The Most Charming and Attractive (1985) by Gerald Bezhanov (the highest-grossing film of 1985, 44.9 mln viewers) and others. During the late 1990s he hosted a popular TV programme The World of Books with Leonid Kuravlyov where he talked about new book releases. In two years it was closed and then relaunched with new hosts. In 2012 he was awarded the IV class Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On Movies

  • The Book of Masters
  • The Heirs
  • The Turkish Gambit
  • The Saga of the Ancient Bulgars: The Tale of Saint Olga
  • Saga of the Ancient Bulgars: The Ladder of Vladimir the Red Sun
  • Railway Romance
  • Evropejskij Konvoj
  • Esli Nevesta Vedma
  • Ultimatum
  • The Barber of Siberia
  • New Year's Story
  • The Night Before Christmas
  • A Man for a Young Girl
  • Lady Into Lassie
  • What a Mess!
  • Russian Account
  • The Master and Margarita
  • Russian miracle
  • Sentence
  • Chuffyk
  • There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, Or It's Raining Again in Brighton Beach
  • The Devil's Puppets
  • Provincial Benefit
  • Destroy the Thirtieth!
  • In Search of the Golden Phallus
  • Gangsters in the Ocean
  • Detonator
  • KGB Agents Also Fall in Love
  • Traces of Rain
  • Made in USSR
  • Across Red Nights
  • Entrance to Labyrinth
  • It
  • Spanish Actress for Russian Minister
  • The Suicide
  • The Stairway
  • Private Detective, or Operation Cooperation
  • Presumption of Innocence
  • Hope
  • Three on the Red Carpet
  • May I die, Lord
  • Karpusha
  • Enclosure
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Begins - Part 2
  • Restricted Area
  • Holy Moly!
  • First Encounter - Last Encounter
  • Defeat
  • Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century
  • One Time Deal
  • Martinko
  • Sitting on the Golden Porch
  • The Left-Hander
  • Snake Catcher
  • The Most Charming and Attractive
  • Five Minutes of Fear
  • Sincerely Yours...
  • Dangerous for Your Life!
  • The Invisible Man
  • Copper Angel
  • Before We Part
  • Chekhov's Vaudevilles
  • Vitya Glushakov - A Friend of the Apaches
  • We're from Jazz
  • The Trust That Has Burst
  • Mirgorod and Its Inhabitants
  • Look for a Woman
  • It's Just Awful!
  • Take Care of the Men!
  • Crazy Money
  • Facts of the Past Day
  • Ladies Invite Gentlemen
  • We, the Undersigned
  • For the Matches
  • Don't Leave Your Lovers
  • Little Tragedies
  • The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed
  • Fuss of the Fusses
  • Tailcoat for an Idler
  • You to Me, Me to You
  • Unanswered Love
  • Incognito from St.Petersburg
  • While the Dream is Mad
  • Live in Joy
  • The Rain
  • Chest of Drawers Was Lead Through the Street...
  • A Dog Was Walking on the Piano
  • The Most Beautiful Horse
  • Mimino
  • Timur and His Team
  • The Last Sacrifice
  • The Adventures of Travka
  • Circus in the Circus
  • Without Father
  • Afonya
  • Escape of Mr. McKinley
  • It Can't Be!
  • Lev Gurych Sinichkin
  • Kysh and TwoBriefcases
  • Homeboy
  • To Dream and to Live
  • This Merry Planet
  • Nylon 100%
  • Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession
  • Life and Amazing Aventures of Robinson Crusoe
  • The Twelve Months
  • Aibolit and Barmaley
  • Seventh Skies
  • Liberation: The Last Assault
  • The Seven Brides of Lance-Corporal Zbruyev
  • Young People
  • Late Child
  • The Roundabout
  • The Beginning
  • The Ballad of Bering and His Friends
  • A Day and the Whole Life
  • Two Days of Wonders
  • Not Under the Jurisdiction
  • Shine, Shine, My Star
  • Crash
  • Men's Talk
  • The Golden Calf
  • Viy
  • Such a Big Boy
  • Elder Sister
  • Your Son and Brother
  • There Is Such a Lad
  • Time, Forward!
  • Непридуманная история
  • Third Time
  • When the Trees Were Tall
  • Midshipman Panin
  • There Will Be No Leave Today

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