Leonid Kuravlyov

Leonid Kuravlyov made his first appearance in a movie while he was still a student. In 1959 he played in the film Segodnya uvolneniya ne budet (1959) by his classmate Andrei Tarkovsky. In 1960, he played the role of a sailor Kamushkin in a historical movie Michman Panin (1960) directed by Mikhail Shvejtser. Simultaneously, Kuravlyov acted in Vasiliy Shukshin's degree work Iz Lebyazhego soobshchayut (1960). That same year, Kuravlyov graduated from VGIK and joined the Theater Studio of Film Actors. From that moment on, Leonid Kuravlyov played a few leading parts and incidental characters in a few movies. In 1961, Kuravlyov starred in a famous Soviet melodrama Kogda derevya byli bolshimi (1962) with Yuriy Nikulin playing the leading part. Actor and film director Vasiliy Shukshin is considered to have been the one to widely introduce Leonid Kuravlyov to the general public. In 1964, he shot two films - Zhivyot takoy paren (1964) and Vash syn i brat (1966) - both starring Leonid Kuravlyov. Vasiliy Shukshin liked Kuravlyov's acting in these two movies so much that he would constantly offer him different roles in many of his projects. Kuravlyov, however, turned down each one of them because he did not wish to play clichéd characters.