Leonid Kuravlyov
Kuravlyov was born in Moscow into a working-class family. His father Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Kuravlyov (1909–1979) worked as a locksmith at the Salyut Machine-Building Association and his mother Valentina Dmitriyevna Kuravlyova (1916–1993) was a hairdresser. In 1941 with the start of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War) his mother was arrested on false report, accused of counter-revolutionary activity (Article 58) and exiled to Karaganda, Kazakh SSR to work at the local plant. In five years she was freed without a right to live in Moscow and sent to Zasheyek, Murmansk Oblast in the Russian far north where she continued working as a hairdresser. In 1948 she managed to get a permission to see her son who spent a year with her at Zasheyek, and in 1951 she finally returned to Moscow.
In 1955 Kuravlyov entered VGIK to study acting under Boris Bibikov. He graduated in 1960 and joined the Theater Studio of Film Actors. He made his first movie appearances while still a student. In 1960 he was noted by Vasily Shukshin and took part in his diploma film Reported From Lebyazhye. In 1961 they both starred in the popular melodrama When the Trees Were Tall, and in 1964 Shukshin gave him the leading role in his comedy movie There Is Such a Lad which brought Kuravlyov true fame and which he considered to be the start of his successful movie career. He also acted in Your Son and Brother (1965) and felt so grateful for what the director did for him that he later named his son after Shukshin.
The role of Shura Balaganov in Mikhail Schweitzer’s comedy The Little Golden Calf based on the book by Ilf and Petrov was one of his first successful roles: he managed to create an image of a brash yet charming petty thief. His other notable roles of that period include Khoma Brut in one of the first Soviet horror movies Viy (1967), antagonist Sorokin in a psychological melodrama Not Under the Jurisdiction (1969), Robinson Crusoe in Stanislav Govorukhin’s Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1972), a Nazi officer Kurt Eismann in Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973) and Lavr Mironovich in Pyotr Todorovsky’s The Last Victim (1975).
In the 1970s he appeared in three to four films per year. Even though Kuravlyov was adept at playing serious dramatic roles, he is still best known for his leading roles in top-grossing comedy movies such as Afonya (1975) by Georgiy Daneliya (11th highest-grossing Soviet film, highest grossing film of the year, 62.2 mln viewers), Leonid Gaidai’s Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future (1973, 17th highest-grossing film, 60 mln viewers) and It Can’t Be! (1975, 46th highest-grossing film with 46.9 mln viewers), The Most Charming and Attractive (1985) by Gerald Bezhanov (the highest-grossing film of 1985, 44.9 mln viewers) and others.
During the late 1990s he hosted a popular TV programme The World of Books with Leonid Kuravlyov where he talked about new book releases. In two years it was closed and then relaunched with new hosts. In 2012 he was awarded the IV class Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filmography (208 Appearances)
Hello, Andrey!
All That Jam
Георгий Данелия. Великий обманщик
The Master and Margarita
The Book of Masters
The Heirs
The Turkish Gambit
Мастер и Маргарита
The Turkish Gambit
The Saga of the Ancient Bulgars: The Tale of Saint Olga
Saga of the Ancient Bulgars: The Ladder of Vladimir the Red Sun
Evropeyskiy konvoy
Railway Romance
Brigada
Esli Nevesta Vedma
The Love Arrow
Memories of Sherlock Holmes
Ultimatum
The Barber of Siberia
Streets of Broken Lights
The Stringer
Old Songs About the Main Thing 3
New Year's Story
The Night Before Christmas
Old Songs about the Main Thing 2
A Man for a Young Girl
Old Songs about the Main Thing
Lady Into Lassie
What a Mess!
Russian Account
Simple - Minded
A Show for a Single Man
Russian Miracle
Sentence
The Ghost of My House
The Codex of Disgrace
Scandal in our Kloshgorod
Territory
Chuffyk
There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, Or It's Raining Again in Brighton Beach
Queen's Personal Life
The Devil's Puppets
Provincial Benefit
Destroy the Thirtieth!
Why Would an Honest Man Need an Alibi?
In Search of the Golden Phallus
Gangsters in the Ocean
Detonator
KGB Agents Also Fall in Love
Traces of Rain
Made in USSR
Across Red Nights
Meet Me in Tahiti
Shadows
How Is It Going, Crucians?
Nesrochnaya vesna
Pretty Face
Entrance to Labyrinth
Entrance to the Maze
The Enchanted Wanderer
Spanish Actress for Russian Minister
The Suicide
Ono
The Stairway
Private Detective, or Operation Cooperation
Presumption of Innocence
Hope
Energetic People
Life of Don Quichote and Sancho
Three on the Red Carpet
May I Die, Lord...
Karpusha
Enclosure
We Are Your Children
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Begins - Part 2
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The twentieth century begins
Blackmailer
Restricted Area
Holy Moly!
First Encounter - Last Encounter
Defeat
Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century
Martinko
One Time Deal
Sitting on the Golden Porch
The Left-Hander
Snake Catcher
Five Minutes of Fear
The Most Charming and Attractive
Sincerely Yours...
Dangerous for Your Life!
The Invisible Man
Through All the Years
TASS Is Authorized to Declare...
Copper Angel
Before We Part
Chekhov's Vaudevilles
Vitya Glushakov - A Friend of the Apaches
Demidovy
We're from Jazz
There Was No Sorrow
The Trust That Has Burst
The Trust That Has Burst
Take Care of the Men!
The Wedding Gift
Mirgorod and Its Inhabitants
Look for a Woman
Look for a Woman
It's Just Awful!
Crazy Money
Facts of the Past Day
Heirloom
Ladies Invite Gentlemen
Мы, нижеподписавшиеся
We, the Undersigned
Don't Leave Your Lovers
Little Tragedies
Little Tragedies
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
For the Matches
Next of Kin
The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed
The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed
Fuss of the Fusses
Foam
Tailcoat for an Idler
Unanswered Love
Live in Joy
Funny People!
Incognito from St.Petersburg
While the Dream is Mad
Счёт человеческий
The Rain
Chest of Drawers Was Lead Through the Street...
A Dog Was Walking on the Piano
The Most Beautiful Horse
You to Me, Me to You
Mimino
Timur and His Team
Fun for Old People
Without Father
These Incredible Musicians, or Shurik's New Dreams
The Last Sacrifice
The Adventures of Travka
Au-u!
Circus in the Circus
The Flight of Mr. McKinley
It Can't Be!
Afonya
Repeated Wedding
Lev Gurych Sinichkin
Kysh and TwoBriefcases
Northern Rhapsody
Homeboy
My Friends
To Dream and to Live
This Merry Planet
Nylon 100%
Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession
Life and Amazing Aventures of Robinson Crusoe
Seventeen Moments of Spring
Black Gloves
Pyotr Ryabinkin
The Twelve Months
Aibolit and Barmaley
The Twelve Months
Boys
White Queen's Move
Seventh Skies
Take Your Time
Liberation - Part 4 : The Battle of Berlin
Liberation - Part 5 : The Last Assault
The Seven Brides of Lance-Corporal Zbruyev
Young People
Investigation Held by ZnaToKi
Late Child
The Roundabout
The Beginning
About Friends and Comrades
The Ballad of Bering and His Friends
A Day and the Whole Life
Two Days of Wonders
I Am His Bride
Not Under the Jurisdiction
Love of Serafim Frolov
Shine, Shine, My Star
Crash
Men's Talk
The Golden Calf
Literature Lesson
Viy
Such a Big Boy
Elder Sister
Without Witnesses
Your Son and Brother
There Is Such a Lad
Time, Forward!
Everything for You
An Unrealistic Story
Third Time
Крыса на подносе
Fuse
When the Trees Were Tall
Lyubushka
Machinist Drove the Trains
Midshipman Panin
Reports from Lebyazhye
There Will Be No Leave Today