Leonid Filatov

Leonid Filatov
Leonid Filatov on the cover of his book of poetry Oranges of beige color
Born	(1946-12-24)24 December 1946 Kazan
Died	26 October 2003(2003-10-26) (aged 56) Moscow
Occupation	Film director, actor, poet
Years active	1969-2003

Leonid Alekseyevich Filatov (Russian: Леони́д Алексе́евич Фила́тов; IPA: [lʲɪɐˈnʲit əlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ fʲɪˈlatəf]; 24 December 1946 – 26 October 2003) was a Soviet and Russian actor, director, poet, pamphleteer, who shot to fame while a member of troupe at Taganka Theatre under director Yury Lyubimov. Despite severe illness that haunted him in the 1990s, he received many awards, including the Russian Federation State Prize and People's Artist of Russia in 1996.

Filatov was born on 24 December 1946, in Kazan. His father was Aleksey Yeremeyevich Filatov (1910 - 1980s), his mother - Klavdia Nikolaevna Filatova (b. 1924). The family frequently moved around, because father was a radio operator and spent much time in field expeditions. When the boy was seven years old his parents divorced, and Leonid moved along with his mother to Ashkhabad to join his mother's relatives. While a schoolboy, he had his first publications made in the Ashkhabad press.

In 1965, after finishing school he arrived in Moscow, and tried to become a film director, but failed the entrance exam at the State Institute of Cinematography - VGIK . However, Leonid Filatov was persistent, so on one of his classmate's advice he took entrance exams to the actor's department of the Shchukins’s Theatrical school. In 1965 he was admitted to the course of B.K. Lvova and L.N. Shikhmatov, and graduated from Schchukin Theatrical school as an actor in 1969.

In 1969 Filatov became an actor with the troupe of Moscow Taganka Theatre. His first main role was a lead in the play "What is to be done?" His career developed with the roles he played in "Master and Margarita", "Cherry Orchard", "House on the Embankment", "Fasten Belts", "Pugachev", "Antiworlds", "Comrade, believe", a role of Horatio in "Hamlet", Kul'chitskiy in "Fallen and Living", Federtsioni in the "Live of Galileo", "Players -21" - work with (Sergey Yursky’s creative association of artists.