Valentin Yezhov | |
---|---|
Born |
Valentin Yezhov 21 January 1921 Samara, USSR |
Died | 8 May 2004 Moscow, Russia |
(aged 83)
Occupation | Screenwriter |
Years active | 1953—2000 |
Spouse(s) | Olga Yezhova (1951—1976) Natalia Gotovtseva (1976—2004) |
Valentin Ivanovich Yezhov, alternatively spelled Ezhov, (Russian: Валентин Иванович Ежов) (21 January 1921 Samara — 8 May 2004 Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian screenwriter, playwright, writer and professor at VGIK.Honored Artist of the Russian SFSR (1976). Recipient of the Lenin Prize (1961) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1997).
Valentin Yezhov was born in Samara, Russian SFSR into a simple Russian family. His father Ivan Vasilievich Yezhov came from the Belye Kolodezi village (now Ozyorsky District, Moscow Oblast). As a Red Army soldier he took part in battles against the Czechoslovak Legion and was heavily wounded in action. While in a hospital he met Anna Ivanovna Maskalina, a senior nurse who later became his wife. Valentin was a premature child born after seven months of pregnancy. He was named after the character of the Faust opera that made a lasting impression on his parents.
In six years the family moved to the town of Ozyory and then — to Moscow. In 1938 Yezhov graduated from school and joined the army. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War he enrolled into the School for Junior Airmen (known simply as ShMAS), then fought at the Russian Far East as part of the naval aviation forces. He demobilized in 1945 and returned to Moscow where he entered VGIK to study screenwriting under Joseph Manevich. Alexander Dovzhenko took his place later on; it was Dovzhenko's only screenwriting course.