Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy

There were some speculations that his ancestors were of Polish nobility or of Jewish ethnicity and that they were exiled to Siberia for participating in the January Uprising of 1863. But, according to Smoktunovsky's own words, his ancestors were Belarusian peasants who were sent to Siberia after his grand-grandfather - a guard in the Bialowieza Forest - shot a wisent without permission. His father was killed in WWII. Smoktunovsky was drafted in the Red Army during WWII and was seized by the Nazis as a POW. He was on the road to a concentration camp, but managed to escape from the Nazis. He joined the partisans and served until the end of WWII. After the war he was under suspicion as a former POW and his career was limited to Siberia.

Innokenti Smoktunovsky (birth name Smoktunovich) was born in Siberian village of Tatianovka near Tomsk in 1925.

He studied acting for one year at the drama-studio of the Krasnoyarsk Drama Theater (1946). He found employment at the Norilsk Zapolyarny Drama Theater, where his friend and partner was Georgi Zhzhyonov, among other exiled actors.

But his film career started with director Mikhail Romm in 'Ubiystvo na ulitse Dante (1956), and in 'Soldaty (1956)' with director 'Aleksandr Ivanov'.

Smoktunovsky was praised by Laurence Olivier for the leading role in 'Hamlet (1964)', a B&W screen version directed by Grigoriy Kozintsev.

Both friends later starred in 'Beregis avtomobilya (1966)', directed by Eldar Ryazanov.

Leading roles in Tchaikovsky (1969), 'Uncle Vanya (1970)', were among the highlights in film career of this great Russian actor.