1. Donatas Banionis was a Soviet and Lithuanian stage and film actor and theatre director.
16 Facts About Donatas Banionis
1. 2.
Donatas Banionis has more than 80 credited roles in cinema and is best known for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin.
3.
Donatas Banionis has worked outside the USSR like in the title role Francisco Goya of the USSR-GDR coproduction Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment, directed by Konrad Wolf and in the title role as Ludwig van Beethoven in the 1976 DEFA-production Beethoven - Tage aus einem Leben.
4.
Donatas Banionis acted in Vilnius, in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.
5.
Donatas Banionis was born on 28 April 1924 in Kaunas, Lithuania, to a family of labourers.
6.
Donatas Banionis's father was Juozas Banionis and his mother Ona Blazaityte Banioniene.
7.
Donatas Banionis graduated from the First Kaunas Handicraft School, specialising in ceramics.
8.
In 1944, Donatas Banionis graduated from the studio at the Panevezys Theater, becoming a professional actor.
9.
Donatas Banionis acted in many plays, including "The Inspector General" by Nikolai Gogol ; Liar by Carlo Goldoni ; How the Steel Was Tempered, based on the novel by Nikolai Ostrovsky ; Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, There, Behind the Door, based on the work of Wolfgang Borchert ; and The Chair, by Valery Vrublevskaya.
10.
However, his cinematic debut is considered to be the film Adam wants to be a Man by director Vytautas Zalakevicius, then Donatas Banionis starred in his picture The Chronicle of One Day.
11.
Donatas Banionis' fame came after the film by Zalakevicius Nobody Wanted to Die.
12.
Donatas Banionis was a member of the Jurgis Baltrusaitis Foundation, whose goal is to promote cultural ties and expand humanitarian cooperation between Lithuania and Russia.
13.
Donatas Banionis is the author of memoir prose "I've wanted to Act since My Childhood".
14.
Donatas Banionis was stitched with a heart stimulant, then he underwent a long rehabilitation course.
15.
Donatas Banionis is a People's Artist of the USSR, winner of the All-Union Film Festival in the category "Best Actor Award", laureate of the State Prizes of the USSR.
16.
Donatas Banionis's awards include the Order of Gediminas III degree, the medal.