Vladislav Strzhelchik

Vladislav Strzhelchik was a Russian actor known for his portrayal of Napoleon in the epic film War and Peace (1965) by director Sergey Bondarchuk.

He was born Vladislav Ignatyevich Strzhelchik on January 31, 1921, in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia. His father, Ignat Strzhelchik, was interned in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) after the First World War, he was a Polish Catholic and discreetly attended the Catholic service in Leningrad. Young Strzhelchik was brought up in a highly cultural atmosphere of his parents home, he was fond of literature and theatre, and had a dream about acting on stage, and eventually started playing in amateur drama at high school.

In 1937 he was admitted to the Acting Studio of the Bolshoi Drama Theatre in Leningrad. There his acting teachers were Aleksei Dikij, and the legendary Chapaev, Boris Babochkin. Strzhelchik worked at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) through his entire acting career beginning in 1938 and ending in 1995, the year he died. His studies and work were interrupted by the Second World War, and Strzhelchik served at the front-line during the siege of Leningrad. After the war he continued his studies and graduated from the Acting Studio of the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) in 1947.

His acting talent was fully revealed under director Georgi Tovstonogov, who seriously updated the repertoire and elevated artistic culture at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre. Strzhelchik worked under Tovstonogov for almost 35 years with an outstanding ensemble of actors at BDT in Leningrad / St. Petersburg. There his stage partners were such stars as Vasili Sofronov, Vitali Politsejmako, Oleg Basilashvili, Tatyana Doronina, Alisa Freyndlikh, Lyudmila Makarova, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Zinaida Sharko, Natalya Tenyakova, Elena Popova, Valentina Kovel, Mariya Prizvan-Sokolova, Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Sergey Yurskiy, Kirill Lavrov, Ivan Palmu, Oleg Borisov, Yefim Kopelyan, Evgeniy Lebedev, Georgiy Shtil, Pavel Pankov, Mikhail Volkov, Leonid Nevedomsky, Vsevolod Kuznetsov, Vadim Medvedev, Yuriy Demich, Gennadiy Bogachyov, Andrey Tolubeev, Nikolay Trofimov, Pavel Luspekayev, and many other remarkable Russian actors.

Among Strzhelchik's best remembered stage works were his appearances as Gregory Solomon in "Tsena" (1968), an adaptation from Sholom Aleichem, and his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in the stage play 'Amadeus' (1982). Strzhelchik was popular among critics and audiences, his stage performances were marked with his special presence and finesse. Among his notable film works were his portrayal of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in War and Peace (1965) by director Sergey Bondarchuk, and General Kovalevsky in popular TV-series 'Adyutant ego prevoskhoditelstva' (1969), among many other roles.

Vladislav Strzhelchik was professor at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinematography (1959-1968). He also taught at the Leningrad Institute of Culture from 1966-1990. Strzhelchik was awarded the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of Russian Federation for his TV work. He was designated People's Artist of the USSR (1974), and was made Hero of Socialist Labor (1988). Vladislav Strzhelchik died of a brain tumor on September 11, 1995, in St. Petersburg, and was laid to rest in Necropolis of The Masters of Art "Literatorskie mostki" at Volkovskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia.