Jüri Järvet

Jüri Järvet (born as Georgi Kuznetsov) was a highly prolific and respected Estonian screen and stage actor. He was born in Tallinn. His mother moved to Moscow in 1920. Jüri stayed to live in family's friend who later gave him into an orphanage. At the age of five he was taken into a family with three children though his new parents didn't adopt him officially. In 1936 he changed his birth name to Jüri Järvet.

Jüri got his first acting experience in the fourth grade were he had a non speaking part in school play. His next role came in sixth grade. He also appeared in five real theatre plays at his school years but he was replaced when he turned sixteen thus making him too old for the parts. After high school he worked as a messenger in factory's office.

In 1941 during the Soviet occupation in Estonia, he was drafted into Soviet Red Army but was later demobilized. After war Jüri worked as a dancer in Noorsooteater but he felt that dancing isn't something he would like to do so in 1944 he started to study acting and in 1945 he got his first role. Beside his studies he also did editorial work in radio.

His most famous film roles came in 1970s as made title role in Grigoriy Kozintsev's powerful King Lear (1970) (King Lear). In 1972 he played Dr. Snaut in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972) and in 1979 he played the owner of the hotel in Grigori Kromanov's cult film _'Hukkunud Alpinisti' hotell (1979)_ (The Dead Mountaineer Hotel).

Jüri Järvet was married twice. In 1948-1958 he was married with actress Inna Taarna. In 1955 their first son Jüri Järvet Jr. was born. In 1958 he married with oncologist Astrid. Couple had daughter Jana in 1960. Jüri died on July 5th 1995 in Tallinn.