Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy

Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy 23 July 1946 2 December 1995 was a Soviet actor and film director His best known roles are in films such as Stalker At Home Among Strangers and The Bodyguard Prior to pursuing an acting career Kaydanovskiy attended technical college where he trained to become a welder In 1965 he started studying acting at The Rostov Theatre School and the Shchukin theatrical school in Moscow Before completing the course he took his first part in the film The Mysterious Wall and upon graduation in 1969 he worked as stage actor making his debut at the Vakhtangov Theatre in 1969 In 1971 he was invited to join the prestigious Moscow Arts Theatre a rare privilege for a 25yearold graduate He made his major film debut in At Home Among Strangers and over the next few years appeared in some two dozen films including the satirical comedy Diamonds for Dictatorship of the Proletariat and The Life of Beethoven At his peak in the 70s Kaidanovsky was among the USSRs most popular actors and it was at this point that famed Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky impressed by the looks and the acting technique of Kaidanovsky in Diamonds invited him to play the title role in his new film Stalker The role earned Kaydanovskiy international acclaim In 1985 he directed A Simple Death which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival In 1993 he directed Just Death which was about the death of Leo Tolstoy