Yuri Ozerov (director)

Yuri Ozerov
From left to right: Ozerov, Oleg Uryumtsev, Fedor Bondarchuk and Tigran Keosayan in 1987, during the filming of Stalingrad.
Born	(1921-01-26)26 January 1921 Moscow, Russian SFSR
Died	16 October 2001(2001-10-16) (aged 80) Moscow, Russian Federation
Occupation	Film director Screenwriter
Years active	1950-1995

Yuri Ozerov (Russian: Ю́рий Никола́евич О́зеров; 26 January 1921 – 16 October 2001) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. He directed twenty films between 1950 and 1995. Ozerov's works won him many awards, among them the title People's Artist of the USSR which was conferred upon him in 1977.

Ozerov was born to Nikolai Nikolayevich Ozerov and Nadezhda Ozerova. His mother, a student of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, had to leave her studies when she became pregnant. Ozerov's father was an acclaimed opera singer who was awarded the title People's Artist of the Russian SFSR in 1937 and taught in the Moscow Conservatory. His brother, also named Nikolai, was a tennis champion and sports commentator.

After graduating from high school, Ozerov enrolled for the Lunacharsky State Institute of Theatre Arts in September 1939. A month later, he was drafted into the Red Army, where he was trained as a signaler. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he held the rank of a Second Lieutenant. Ozerov participated in the Battle of Moscow and in the campaigns for Ukraine and Poland. In 1944, he underwent a staff officers' course in the Frunze Academy. While stationed in the 3rd Belorussian Front, he took part in the Battle of Königsberg as a forward observation officer. In a 2001 interview, he told that the battle had a profound effect on him and he swore that if he will remain alive, he would "tell the story of the great army that fought in the war." After the German surrender in May, Ozerov served in the occupied city until his discharge in October 1945, with the rank of a Major. During the war, Ozerov married a nurse, Raisa Sukhomlina, with whom he had a son, Vladimir. The two later divorced.