Leonid Kuravlyov

Soviet and Russian film actor He became a Peoples Artist of the RSFSR in 1976 Kuravlyov was born in Moscow into a workingclass family His father Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Kuravlyov 19091979 worked as a locksmith at the Salyut MachineBuilding Association and his mother Valentina Dmitriyevna Kuravlyova 19161993 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 counterrevolutionary 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 Schweitzers 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 Govorukhins Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 1972 a Nazi officer Kurt Eismann in Seventeen Moments of Spring 1973 and Lavr Mironovich in Pyotr Todorovskys 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 topgrossing comedy movies such as Afonya 1975 by Georgiy Daneliya 11th highestgrossing Soviet film highest grossing film of the year 622 mln viewers Leonid Gaidais Ivan Vasilievich Back to the Future 1973 17th highestgrossing film 60 mln viewers and It Cant Be 1975 46th highestgrossing film with 469 mln viewers The Most Charming and Attractive 1985 by Gerald Bezhanov the highestgrossing film of 1985 449 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