High Directors Courses
Which school did Vasily Livanov go to from 1958 to 1966?
Vasily Livanov Vasily Borisovich Livanov MBE , FMF , PAR ( ; born 19 July 1935 ) , is a Soviet and Russian actor , animation and film director , screenwriter and writer most famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the Soviet TV series . He was named Peoples Artist of the RSFSR in 1988 . Early years . Vasily Livanov was born into a famous theatrical family . His paternal grandfather Nikolai Alexandrovich Livanov ( 1874–1949 ) was a Volga Cossack from Simbirsk who moved to Moscow in 1905 and performed at the Struysky Theatre under a pseudonym of Izvolsky ; after the revolution he worked at the Mossovet and Lenkom Theatres . Vasilys father Boris Livanov ( 1904–1972 ) was also a prominent actor and stage director who served at the Moscow Art Theatre all his life , while his mother Eugenia Kazimirovna Livanova ( née Prawdzic-Filipowicz ) ( 1907–1978 ) was an artist who belonged to Polish szlachta . Vasily was brought up in the artistic milieu . Many famous actors who worked with his father , like Olga Knipper , Alla Tarasova , Vasily Kachalov ( whom Livanov was named after ) , as well as Pyotr Konchalovsky , Boris Pasternak , Valery Chkalov were frequent guests at their house . In 1940 his family was staying in Chernivtsi along with other Moscow actors , and his Polish nanny took him to the local Catholic church where he was baptized , presumably with his mothers permission . Today he belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church despite he never officially converted . His family spent the first war years in evacuation and in 1943 returned to Moscow . In 1954 Vasily graduated from the Moscow Secondary Art School under the USSR Academy of Arts , and in 1958 he finished the acting courses at the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute . His film career started in 1959 with one of the leading roles in the Letter Never Sent . The movie was shot in Taiga at −40 °C , and the director Mikhail Kalatozov decided that Livanov and Samoilova should voice their characters crying not in the studio , but outside , right in the woods . As a result , Livanov lost his voice , and in two weeks it returned as a unique hoarse tembre that wouldve become one of Livanovs trademarks ever since . From 1958 to 1959 he performed at the Vakhtangov Theatre , and from 1960 to 1964 – at the National Film Actors Theatre . He also starred in the 1960 adaptation of Vladimir Korolenkos Blind Musician along with his father and the 1962 adaptation of Vasily Aksyonovs Colleagues that became his first real breakthrough . Animation . In 1966 he finished the High Directors Courses where he studied under Mikhail Romm and joined Soyuzmultfilm as an animation director , screenwriter and voice actor . During the next ten years he wrote and directed several animated films , including Most , Most , Most , Most and The Blue Bird feature . Yet his biggest success came with The Bremen Town Musicians animated musical , a modernised adaptation of the eponymous folktale he created with Yuri Entin and Gennady Gladkov . Both parts showed heavy influence of rock and roll and hippie cultures which was unusual for the Soviet cinema . The first film was directed by Inessa Kovalevskaya , while the sequel On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians ( 1973 ) was directed by Livanov himself . The leading Soviet pop singer Muslim Magomayev voiced almost all characters in it which only added to the overwhelming popularity of the series . Livanov was also the voice behind multiple popular Soviet animated characters such as Gena the Crocodile from the Cheburashka series , Karlsson-on-the-Roof from the Soviet adaptation of Astrid Lindgrens fairy tale and Boa from 38 Parrots . Sherlock Holmes . In the late 1970s and in the 1980s , Livanov returned to film stardom in what became the greatest success of his acting career : the role of Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles and other Holmes TV series directed by Igor Maslennikov . Those movies were filmed between 1979 and 1986 , with the latter four stories forming the plot of a standalone big-screen feature entitled The Twentieth Century Approaches . Vasily Livanov played Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin played Doctor Watson . On 27 April 2007 , a sculpture featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson as portrayed by Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin was opened on the Smolenskaya embankment alongside the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Moscow ( sculptor Andrey Orlov ) . Writer . Apart from screenplays Vasily Livanov has been professionally writing books since the 1960s . He published novels , stories , fairy tales and memoirs , including biography books dedicated to Boris Livanov , Boris Pasternak and other people he personally knew . Personal life . Livanov was married twice . His first wife ( 1958–1970 ) was Alina Engelgardt , daughter of the acclaimed Soviet biochemist Vladimir Engelgardt . They had a daughter Anastasia . Since 1972 he has been married to Elena Artemievna Balabanova , an art director and animator . They have two sons , Boris and Nikolai . In 2009 Boris was charged with a murder of Igor Khromov whom he cut with a knife during a drunken brawl ; he was imprisoned for nine years , but set free following a parole in 2015 . On June 2017 Maria Golubkina , an actress , daughter of Larisa Golubkina and stepdaughter of Andrei Mironov , announced her engagement to Boris Livanov , but in just a month they decided to take a break . Vasily Livanov was a close friend of Vitaly Solomin and Rina Zelyonaya , who played Doctor Watson and Mrs . Hudson . As he writes in his memoir : It happens so that when someone passes away , we customarily treat his actions and related events as the thing of the past . But everything about my beloved closest friend and partner Vitaly Solomin has become a part of my way of life , my conscience , so for me it will become the thing of the past only when I pass away too . Honors and awards . - Peoples Artist of the RSFSR ( 1988 ) - 4th Class Order For Merit to the Fatherland ( 1 December 2005 ) — For substantial contribution to the development of national cinema . - Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire ( 20 February 2006 ) — For service to the theatre and performing arts . - Order of Honour ( 27 October 2016 ) — For great services in the development of national culture and arts , many years of fruitful activity . - Special Golden Eagle Award ( 27 January 2017 ) — For outstanding contribution to the history of Russian cinema . External links . - Biography of Vasily Livanov - The Sherlock Holmes Museum - Internet site dedicated to Vasiliy Livanov - A review of the Sherlock Holmes series - The adventures of Sherlock Holmes in Russia - 221b.ru - Russian site dedicated to Vasiliy Livanov