1. Sergei Fyodorovich Bondarchuk was a Soviet and Russian actor and filmmaker of Ukrainian origin who was one of the leading figures of Soviet cinema in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
12 Facts About Sergei Bondarchuk
1. 2.
Sergei Bondarchuk was made both a Hero of Socialist Labour and a People's Artist of the USSR.
3.
Sergei Fyodorovich Bondarchuk was born in the village of Bilozerka on September 25,1920, in the family of Orthodox Christian peasants Fyodor Petrovich and Tatyana Vasilievna.
4.
Sergei Bondarchuk's mother, being a deeply religious person, named her son in honor of Sergius of Radonezh and baptized him in the Annunciation Monastery near Kherson.
5.
Sergei Bondarchuk spent his childhood in the cities of Yeysk and Taganrog, graduating from the Taganrog School Number 4 in 1938.
6.
Sergei Bondarchuk continued studies at the Rostov College of Arts.
7.
Sergei Bondarchuk took part in the initial stage of the Battle of the Caucasus, then was reorganized into the Don Front.
8.
Sergei Bondarchuk was decorated for his courage in battle and was discharged with honors in 1946.
9.
Sergei Bondarchuk earned international fame with his epic production of Tolstoy's War and Peace, which on original release totaled more than seven hours of cinema, took six years to complete and won Sergei Bondarchuk, who both directed and acted the role of Pierre Bezukhov, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1968.
10.
Sergei Bondarchuk's last feature film, and his second in English, was an epic TV version of Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don, starring Rupert Everett.
11.
Sergei Bondarchuk met his second wife Irina Skobtseva when both were appearing in Othello, and they married in 1959.
12.
Sergei Bondarchuk died on October 20,1994, at the age of 74 in Moscow from myocardial infarction.