Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy

Alexandr Kajdanovsky, Russian actor, director and screenwriter, now best remembered for his work in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. Kajdanovsky left Junior High School to enroll in technical college where he was training to become a welder. Apparently a prospect of becoming a worker did not appeal to him and in 1965 he started studying acting at The Shchukhin Theatre School in Moscow. Before completing the course he took his first part in the film Tainstvennaya stena (1968) (A Mysterious Wall), and upon graduation in 1969, he worked as stage actor. Still unsatisfied with his work Kajdanovsky joined the army in 1973 spending some years in cavalry.

It was a famous film director Nikita Mikhalkov who discovered Kajdanovsky and gave him the lead in his civil war drama At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger Among His Own (1974) (At Home among Strangers, Stranger at Home). By the late 1970s Kajdanovsky had had credits in some noted films, including adventure stories Propavshaya ekspeditsiya (1975) (The Lost Expedition), Zolotaya rechka (1977) (Golden River), a fantasy Pilot Pirx's Inquest (1979) (Pilot Pirks Tested). The greatest twist in his career came with Andrei Tarkovsky giving him the lead in Stalker (1979). Kajdanovsky attended Tarkovsky's writing seminar and under his teacher's influence he wrote and directed Prostaya smert (1985) (An Ordinary Death) - an adaptation of one of Leo Tolstoy's stories - the film won honour at the Malaga film festival. Kajdanovsky's starring role in Spanish film El aliento del diablo (1993) (The Devil's Breath) and in Hungarian Büvös vadász (1994) (Magic Hunter) made him an international celebrity and resulted in him having been invited to become the juryman of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Unfortunately alcohol ruined his life, he could hardly maintain his career between the bouts of drinking, he died on December 3, 1995, 3 months short of 50.