1. Rolan Antonovich Bykov was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actor, director, screenwriter and pedagogue.
23 Facts About Rolan Bykov
1. 2.
Rolan Bykov was born to Anton Mikhailovich Bykov and Olga Matveyevna Bykova, the youngest of two brothers.
3.
Rolan Bykov named various reasons for this: from a drunken militsioner at the passport office to his own aunt who confused names and dates while arranging his documents.
4.
Rolan Bykov's father was a military and intelligence officer of mixed Polish-Czech ancestry originally named Semyon Geronimovich Gordanovsky.
5.
Rolan Bykov started his career by participating in World War I and making a successful escape after being taken captive by Austria-Hungary.
6.
Rolan Bykov was later promoted to a high-ranking position in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and served as a managing director at various enterprises.
7.
Rolan Bykov's mother changed her name from Ella Matusovna to Olga Matveevna at one point.
8.
Rolan Bykov wanted to become an actress and finished two courses of a theater institute, but was expelled for truancy.
9.
In 1951 Rolan Bykov graduated and immediately joined the Moscow Youth Theater where he served as an actor and a stage director until 1959.
10.
Rolan Bykov made his acting debut in the film School of Courage.
11.
Between 1959 and 1960 Rolan Bykov headed the Lenin Komsomol Theatre in Leningrad, but left it for cinema.
12.
Rolan Bykov played over 100 roles and became highly popular as a comedy actor with such roles as Chebakov from Balzaminov's Marriage, Barmalei from Aybolit-66 and Skomorokh from Andrei Rublev, Ivan Karyakin from Two Comrades Were Serving, Petrykin from Big School-Break, Cat Bazilio from The Adventures of Buratino, Father Fyodor from The Twelve Chairs and others.
13.
Rolan Bykov's films are generally associated with postmodernism, presented as a mix of different styles, genres and techniques, with theatrical musical numbers, arthouse editing, fourth wall breaking and so on.
14.
Apart from his movie career Rolan Bykov worked as an educator at High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors.
15.
Rolan Bykov was a member of the Nika Award organization.
16.
In 1989 Rolan Bykov headed the Younost studio at Mosfilm dedicated to children's cinema.
17.
Since 1989 Rolan Bykov had been involved in the political life of Russia.
18.
Rolan Bykov headed a Nonpartisan Socio-Political Movement 95 that expressed support to culture, science, education and ecology.
19.
Rolan Bykov served as a president of the Help bank at one point.
20.
In 1996 Rolan Bykov was diagnosed with lung cancer and survived a surgery.
21.
Rolan Bykov appeared in Scarecrow in minor role and produced several movies, but left the industry shortly after.
22.
Bykov wrote poetry since he was a boy, and published a book of poems in 1994 entitled Poems by Rolan Bykov that was re-released several times.
23.
In later years Rolan Bykov expressed a lot of concern regarding the movie industry and newer times in general.