Leonid Kuravlyov

Leonid Kuravlyov
Born Leonid Vyacheslavovich Kuravlyov
(1936-10-08) 8 October 1936
Moscow, USSR
Occupation actor
Years active 1959–present
Spouse(s) Nina Kuravlyova
Children Ekaterina Kuravlyova (1962)
Vasily Kuravlyov (1978)
Parent(s) Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Kuravlyov (1909–1970)
Valentina Dmitrievna Kuravlyova (1916–1993)

Leonid Vyacheslavovich Kuravlyov (Russian: Леонид Вячеславович Куравлёв) (born 8 October 1936) is a Soviet/Russian actor and People's Artist of the RSFSR (1976).[1]

Leonid Kuravlyov was born in Moscow in 1936. In 1941, Kuravlyov's mother was falsely accused and exiled to the Russian North, where they would spend several years until their return to Moscow. In 1955, Leonid Kuravlyov was accepted to the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography and began studying the art of acting. In 2014 he signed a petition supporting Vladimir Putin and Russia's annexation of Crimea.[2]

Leonid Kuravlyov and Vasily Shukshin

Leonid Kuravlyov made his first appearance in a movie while he was still a student. In 1959 he played in the film There Will Be No Leave Today by his classmate Andrei Tarkovsky. In 1960, he played the role of a sailor Kamushkin in a historical movie Michman Panin (Warrant Officer Panin) directed by Mikhail Shveitzer. Simultaneously, Kuravlyov acted in Vasily Shukshin's degree work Iz Lebyazhyego soobshchayut (They report from Lebyazhiy). That same year, Kuravlyov graduated from VGIK and joined the Theater Studio of Film Actors. From that moment on, Leonid Kuravlyov played a few leading parts and incidental characters in a few movies. In 1961, Kuravlyov and Shukshin starred in a famous Soviet melodrama When the Trees Were Tall (When the Trees Were Tall) with Yuri Nikulin playing the leading part. Actor and film director Vasily Shukshin is considered to have been the one to widely introduce Leonid Kuravlyov to the general public. In 1964, he acted in two films – There Is Such a Lad and Your Son and Brother – both starring Leonid Kuravlyov. Shukshin liked Kuravlyov's acting in these two movies so much that he would constantly offer him different roles in many of his projects. Kuravlyov, however, turned down each one of them because he did not wish to play clichéd characters.

Late 1960s

The role of Shura Balaganov in Mikhail Shveitser's comedy The Little Golden Calf based on Ilf and Petrov's eponymous book was the next step in Leonid Kuravlyov's acting career, in which he managed to create an unforgettable sparkling image of a naive petty thief. Kuravlyov's other notable films of this period include one of the first Soviet horror movies Viy (1967) adaptation of Gogol's novel directed by Georgi Kropachyov, where he played young seminarist Khoma Brutus, and a psychological melodrama Not Under the Jurisdiction (1969) directed by Vladimir Krasnopolsky and Valeri Uskov, where he played antagonist Sorokin.

1970s

In the early 1970s, Leonid Kuravlyov would star in three to four films a year. He managed to play completely opposite characters like Robinson Crusoe in Stanislav Govorukhin's Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1972), Nazi officer Kurt Eismann in Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973), and Lavr Mironovich in Pyotr Todorovsky's The Last Victim (1975).

Even though Kuravlyov was adept at playing serious dramatic roles, he is still best known for his comic appearances in movies like Leonid Gaidai's Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973), where Kuravlyov played a thief named George Miloslavsky, who accidentally got teleported to the times of Ivan the Terrible. Vyacheslav Nevinny and Andrei Mironov also tried out for this role, but Leonid Gaidai decided in Kuravlyov's favor.

In 1975, Leonid Kuravlyov starred in one of his most famous comedies Afonya, directed by Georgiy Daneliya. Kuravlyov played a very atypical character – a plumber named Afonya Borshchyov, who takes bribes, often gets into trouble, abuses alcohol, quarrels with his superiors at work, and doesn’t really know what to do with his life. And then suddenly, one of his neighborhood "female clients" falls in love with him ... About 62,2 mln. people went to see Afonya during its first year on cinema screens, making it an unconditional Soviet box-office leader of 1975.

In 1979, Leonid Kuravlyov played a brief role of a thief named Kopchyoniy in Stanislav Govorukhin’s cult film The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed.

1980s and 1990s

During the 1980s, Leonid Kuravlyov starred in a number of popular movies, such as Ladies Invite Gentlemen (1980), Look for a Woman (1983), Demidovs (1983), TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (1984), The Most Charming and Attractive (1985), The Twentieth Century Approaches (1986) and many others.

In the 1990s he appeared in the films Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach (1992), The Master and Margarita (1994), What a Mess! (1995).

2000s to present

In 2002 he starred in Russian mini-TV series Brigada as an MVD general. In 2009 he played the Nobleman in Disney's first Russian-only release, The Book of Masters, a Princess Bride-like comedy fantasy based on themes from Russian folk tales such as Baba-Yaga, Koshchei the Immortal, Konek-Gorbunok, Ivan the Fool and the Alatyr Stone.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ "Биография Леонида Куравлева". RIA Novosti.
  2. ↑ http://mkrf.ru/press-center/news/ministerstvo/deyateli-kultury-rossii-v-podderzhku-pozitsii-prezidenta-po-ukraine-i-krymu
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