Soviet and Belarusian theater and film actor
Rostislav Ivanovich Yankovsky is a Soviet and Belarusian theater and film actor, People’s Artist of the USSR (1978).
Rostislav Ivanovich Yankovsky was born on February 5, 1930 in Odessa in the family of an employee. His parents were hereditary noblemen: his father, Ivan Pavlovich Yankovsky, a nobleman, served as a staff captain in the Semenovsky regiment in the pre-revolutionary period, his mother Marina Ivanovna Nenastieva, a noblewoman, spoke French and German fluently, was well versed in music and sang beautifully.
Due to his father’s appointments, the Yankovsky family often changed their place of residence. During the war, the Yankovskys lived in Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhstan), then in Leninabad (Tajikistan), where their father worked in construction.
While studying at school, Rostislav Ivanovich was engaged in an amateur art club, played comedic roles. At the same time, he started boxing and became the champion of Tajikistan among young men. After graduating from high school in 1948, he got married, worked as a depot dispatcher in Leninabad, and continued to participate in amateur performances at the Palace of Culture. In the same year, he enrolled in acting courses at the departmental Leninabad Russian Drama Theater. After completing the courses, he got a job in a professional theater in 1951.
In 1957, together with his wife Nina and son Igor, he moved to Minsk, where he was accepted as an actor at the Gorky State Russian Drama Theater of the Byelorussian SSR (now the Gorky National Academic Drama Theater), where he served until the end of his life. During this time, he played more than 170 leading roles in classical, modern and foreign repertoire. As an actor of a wide creative range, he created vivid characteristic images in films. He played about 60 roles in films.
Rostislav Ivanovich Yankovsky is a bright personality and an iconic figure in the cultural life of Belarus, winner of many theater awards, winner of cinematographic and government awards, chairman of the International Film Festival of the CIS countries “Listapad” in Minsk (1995-2010), deputy of the Supreme Council of the Byelorussian SSR (1985-1990). From 2000 to 2004, member of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. Over the years, he was secretary of the Board (1988-1998), a member of the Rada and the Presidium (since 1998) of the Union of Theatrical Figures of Belarus.
He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1971), the Order of Friendship of Peoples (January 25, 1991), the Order of the Badge of Honor (1967), the Order of the Fatherland II degree (February 4, 2010), the Order of the Fatherland III degree (December 29, 2004), the Order of Francis Skaryna (January 27, 2000), Francis Skaryna Medal (February 1, 1995), Pushkin Medal (December 4, 2007, Russia).
