Vasily Lanovoy

Political views

In 2014, he signed a petition supporting the actions of Vladimir Putin in the annexation of Crimea, for which he was banned from entering Ukraine. Crimea is since March 2014 under dispute by Russia and Ukraine.

He was critical of the (late 2013 until early 2014) Ukrainian Euromaidan demonstrations, claiming that the United States were using Ukrainians for their own political gain.

Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy was a Soviet and Russian actor who worked in the Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow. He was also known as the President of Artek Festival of Films for Children. Lanovoy's honours include the KGB Prize, the Lenin Prize, and the title of People's Artist of the USSR.[1] In 2019, he received the title of Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation.

Personal life

Lanovoy was born to a family of Ukrainian peasants. His parents, originally from the rural Odessa Oblast, escaped the famine to Moscow. However, the World War II Nazi/Romanian occupation caught little Vasily in southern Ukraine with his village relatives while his parents were evacuated to the Soviet rear as workers with a military-critical industrial company.

Lanovoy was married to Irina Kupchenko, herself a famous Soviet actress educated in Kiev. His first wife was another film star, Tatiana Samoilova, best known for her leading part in The Cranes Are Flying.

Lanovoy died from complications of COVID-19 at a hospital in Moscow on 28 January 2021, less than two weeks after his 87th birthday.