Anatoly Fradis

Anatoly Fradis

Anatoly Fradis (born September 26, 1948, Odessa, USSR) is an actor, film director, producer and entrepreneur.

Anatoly was born into a film family as a third-generation filmmaker. His grandfather, Akiva Fradis, was one of the original founders of the Film Studio in the City of Odessa, on the Black Sea, in 1919. Then, his father, Adolf Fradis, worked at the same studio since 1933, as UPM and executive producer of such acclaimed Russian films as Mysterious Island, Tanker Derbent and The Shooting Party. After fighting in World War II, Adolf Fradis came back in 1945 to work for the same studio and successfully produced more than 66 films for Odessa Film Studios and, later, Mosfilm Studios, Moscow, during a long career, which ended by his death in 1982. Anatoly's mother was a film editor, and his sister, Tatiana, was a sound designer for Russian Television.

In his early childhood, during the 1950s, Anatoly Fradis was a famous child actor, starring in the acclaimed Russian film White Poodle. He also acted in the Odessa Russian Theatre. In 1966, his entire family moved to Moscow, where Anatoly graduated in 1970 from the celebrated Schepkin Drama School and later from the High Courses of Scriptwriters and Film Directors. Anatoly Fradis worked as a film director for Mosfilm Studios, Moscow, the largest and oldest studio in Europe and the USSR, from the time he was twenty until he departed for the United States in 1979. During his Mosfilm's years, Mr. Fradis worked as First AD and Director on such well-known films as Front Behind the Front Lines and Live on Their Own.

Upon his arrival to the United States in 1979, Mr. Fradis began his career as a promoter and impresario. He promoted primarily Eastern European films and live shows from the former USSR, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and toured them throughout the US, Canada and Western Europe. He was involved in bringing many acclaimed performers, such as George Marianovich, Radmila Karaklajić, Yanosh Koosh, Karel Gott, Lili Ivanova, the Romen Theatre (Moscow Gypsy Theatre), Jewish Theatre, Warsaw, and one of the greatest Spanish film stars and singers, Sarita Montiel, with Spanish Ballet Fuego Flamenco into the US, as well as many American performers such as José Feliciano and Johnny Cash to Eastern Europe.

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