Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Sergei Sergeyevich Bodrov (Сергей Сергеевич Бодров; December 27, 1971 – September 20, 2002), also known as Sergei Bodrov Jr., was a Russian actor who had lead roles in the films Brother, Prisoner of the Mountains, East/West and Brother 2.

He was the son of the Russian playwright, actor, director and producer Sergei Bodrov.

He died in the Kolka–Karmadon rock ice slide at the end of the second day of shooting of his film The Messenger.

Sergei Bodrov was born on December 27, 1971, in Moscow.

His father is a film director, Sergei Bodrov, and his mother Valentina Nikolayevna was a fine art expert.

Sergei Bodrov Jr. believed that "childhood is the most important and the most amazing time in life."

and what you'll become happens in the first sixteen years". Various publications report that Bodrov wanted to become a garbageman and drive an orange car.

Bodrov wrote about his early years and events which influenced his worldview in a "Composition on the Theme: Eight Events which Influenced Me, or How I Grew Up to Be a Good Person."

Sergei Bodrov attended the special French-language School No. 1265.

Instead, in 1989 he enrolled in the art history program in the History Department of Moscow State University, graduating with Honors and remaining for postgraduate studies, although he already knew that he would not work in a museum or library.

In his own words, at the university, he "learned to see beauty in the simple things around us".

Sergei's first role as an actor was in Freedom is Paradise in 1989, directed by his father.

He appeared on screen only for a few minutes, playing a minor lawbreaker who was waiting for a decision on his own fate while sitting next to the main hero of the film.

In 1991, while still a student, Bodrov studied art in Italy, where he found work as a lifeguard and earned money to support his travels around the country.

When he was asked in an interview if his education was useful in his life, he answered: ''Of course.

So you come to a city.

What do you usually know about it?

That there is a central square, some shops... And I know there is a painting in one of the museums and that you can spend the whole day in front of.

And this day is added to your life.

''

During his university days, he also had a bit role as a bellhop in the 1992 movie White King, Red Queen.

In 1995, his father travelled to Dagestan for the filming of his movie Prisoner of the Mountains.

Bodrov asked to go with him, prepared to do any available work.

Unexpectedly, he became one of the featured actors, playing the conscript Vanya Zhilin, partnered with Oleg Menshikov who played the regular soldier Alexey Ryapolov.

Bodrov received an award for best actor jointly with Menshikov at the Kinotavr cinema festival in Sochi.

Bodrov himself did not claim to be an actor: ''I always say everywhere: I'm not an actor, I'm not an actor, I'm not an actor.

And I hear: "No, you're an actor".

And I say that an actor is quite a different thing.

Actors are different, it's a different temperament.

A role for me is not a profession.

It's something that you do.

''

From October 1996 to August 1999, Bodrov was the host of the program Vzglyad on Channel One.

He said that he left the show feeling it had given him a good schooling: ''I became acquainted with so many people, heard so many stories, read so many letters - it doesn't happen in other jobs.

It had a very positive charge.

Help two or three people and the telecast has done some good.

But it has to be done responsibly.

After becoming an actor and television host he completed and defended (in 1998) his graduate thesis entitled "Architecture in Venetian Renaissance Painting" and received the Candidate of Sciences degree.

In December 2012, a memorial plaque was installed in the school in his memory.

Bodrov wanted to enrol in the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, but his father advised him that "cinema is a passion, and if you don't feel it you should either wait for it or forget about it forever."