Actors - Vasily Livanov

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	Actors - Vasily Livanov

Vasily Borisovich Livanov (born 19 July, 1935) is one of the most easily recognizable Russian film actors and the only one to receive an Order of the British Empire (of the second degree, for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes).

His father was Boris Livanov, a preeminent actor of the Moscow Art Theatre and probably the most acclaimed stage actor of his generation. Vasily was brought up in the artistic milieu, as many of the greatest Russian actors (such as Olga Knipper and Alla Tarasova) worked with his father and frequented the Livanov house.

Livanov graduated from the Vakhtangov Theatre school and started his film career in 1959. His breakthrough role came in the 1963 adaptation of Vasily Aksyonov's Colleagues, in which he co-starred with Vasily Lanovoy and Oleg Anofriev.

Livanov's rather dissipated bohemian lifestyle all but derailed his film career. He made very few appearances in the movies produced in the late 1960s and 1970s, using his newly acquired hoarse voice to become the voice behind the famous Russian cartoon characters - Karlsson-on-the-Roof and Crocodile Gena. His other major contribution to the Soyuzmultfilm cartoon industry was the modernized adaptation of Town Musicians of Bremen, which went on to become a cult Soviet cartoon film of the 1970s.

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 TV series directed by Igor Maslennikov. The Russians believe that Livanov was the most believable and authentic Holmes to ever grace the screen. His other notable roles from the period included Don Quixote and Tsar Nicholas II.

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