As a young man, he resembled a prince heir—viewers still remember the beautiful, refined face of Vasily Livanov in the film “The Blind Musician.” In fact, he was the prince heir: the third in the acting dynasty of the Livanovs—grandson of the actor Nikolai Livanov and son of the famous Mosfilm actor Boris Livanov.
You could say that Vasily Livanov’s fate was shaped by the circle of regulars at his parents’ home. That was Boris Pasternak, Vsevolod Kachalov, Nikolai Cherkasov. “Communication with my father, with his circle of friends—that was my school in art. All of Soviet creative intelligentsia stayed at our house,” Vasily Livanov would later say.
Vasily Livanov is an incredibly multifaceted genius without whom you can’t imagine Soviet cinema and animation. Our Soviet Sherlock Holmes created by Livanov was recognized as the best in world cinematography, and many of us still freeze at the television when we hear his familiar voice with that distinctive “crackle.”
How the career of the legendary actor began, and what was in the past and in the present—Vasily Borisovich Livanov tells it himself, honestly and without omissions. Here is the first and best book of memoirs by the great actor!