Anatoly (Otto) Alekseyevich Solonitsyn (August 30, 1934, Bogorodsk, Gorky Region — June 11, 1982, Moscow) was a Soviet stage and film actor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1981). A native of what is now Nizhny Novgorod Region, he is best known for his leading roles in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.[1]

Childhood and youth

He was born into the family of Aleksey Fyodorovich Solonitsyn and Nina Kuzminichna Ivakina. His father worked as the editor of the district newspaper Leninskaya Pobeda ("Lenin's Victory") in Bogorodsk; according to other sources, he was executive secretary of Gorkovskaya Pravda.[2][3] His mother was an announcer on the local radio. At birth the boy was given the name Otto, after the polar explorer Otto Schmidt, whose Arctic expedition was then on everyone's lips; later, when a German name came to be viewed with hostility, he changed it to Anatoly, keeping Otto only in his official documents.[2]

From 1938 to 1941 the family lived in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), then moved to Saratov, where Anatoly finished the seven-year school and enrolled in a construction technical school. After graduating from the technical school in 1951, he worked as a fitter at the Saratov scale-repair plant. In 1952 he moved with his family to Frunze (now Bishkek), where he finished tenth grade and, from 1954 to 1957, worked as a geologist, a toolmaker, and a Komsomol instructor. Three times, in 1955–1957, he tried unsuccessfully to enter GITIS in Moscow.[2]

Theater career

In 1960 he graduated from the studio attached to the Sverdlovsk State Drama Theater and served in that theater until 1966, performing roles in The Insulted and Injured after Dostoevsky, An Irkutsk Story by Arbuzov, and other productions.[2] At the same time he appeared on Sverdlovsk television.[1] He later worked at the Gorky State Russian Drama Theater of the Byelorussian SSR in Minsk (1966–1967), at the Krasny Fakel ("Red Torch") theater in Novosibirsk (1968–1970), at the State Russian Drama Theater of the Estonian SSR in Tallinn (1970–1971), and at the Lensovet Theater in Leningrad (1972–1976), where he appeared in Zorin's Warsaw Melody and in Crime and Punishment after Dostoevsky.[2] In 1977, at the Lenin Komsomol Theater in Moscow, he played Hamlet in Tarkovsky's staging of Shakespeare's tragedy.[2]

Film career

He made his film debut in 1963 in Gleb Panfilov's short film The Case of Kurt Clausewitz, shot at the Sverdlovsk television studio.[2] The turning point came in 1966: after reading the script of Andrei Rublev in the magazine Iskusstvo Kino, Solonitsyn took leave and came to audition for Tarkovsky. The director had great difficulty getting approval to cast a little-known actor in the lead role: the deciding argument was that, of twenty photo tests submitted to them, the historians unanimously singled out Solonitsyn as the man who resembled Rublev.[3] The role brought the actor worldwide fame, and his partnership with Tarkovsky continued in all of the director's subsequent films made before he left the country: Solaris (1972, the role of Sartorius), Mirror (1974, the role of the forensic doctor), and Stalker (1979, the role of the Writer).[2]

Among his other significant works are Commissar Evstryukov in Panfilov's "There Is No Ford in the Fire" (1967), Major Petushkov in Aleksey German's "Trial on the Roads" (filmed in 1971, premiered in 1986), provincial executive committee chairman Sarychev in Mikhalkov Nikita's "At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger at Home" (1974), the role of Rybnik in Alov and Naumov's two-part "The Legend of Till," a role in Larisa Shepitko's "The Ascent," and the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in Aleksandr Zarkhi's biographical film "Twenty-Six Days in the Life of Dostoevsky" (1980).[2][3] In all, Solonitsyn appeared in more than 40 films.[2]

Legacy

Solonitsyn died on June 11, 1982, in Moscow of cancer, a few months short of his 48th birthday. He is buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery.[2] In Bogorodsk, where he was born, a memorial plaque has been installed; at his birthplace there is also a geocaching commemorative cache.[2]

External links

  • Wikidata (archive) (Q787038 — entry in the free knowledge base)
  • VIAF (34659138 — Virtual International Authority File)
  • ISNI (0000000116181748)
  • GND (11892740X — German National Library catalog)

Sources

  1. kino-teatr.ru — Kino-Teatr.Ru (archive)
  2. kinosozvezdie.ru — Actors of Soviet Cinema — Kinosozvezdie — an author's project by Sergey Nikolaev (archive)
  3. dic.academic.ru — Solonitsyn Anatoly (Otto) Alekseevich — What is Solonitsyn Anatoly (Otto) Alekseevich? (archive)
  4. geocaching.su — Anatoly Solonitsyn. In Memory of a Great Actor — Geocaching (archive)
  5. rus.team — Solonitsyn Anatoly Alekseevich — Dramatic Actor — Biography (archive)
  6. radiopobeda.ru — Solonitsyn Anatoly Alekseevich (archive)