(Milla Jovovich)

Even with this great number of Russians and their descendants in Hollywood, during the 1970’s and 1980’s, a rather curious situation developed. Russian roles in films were given to Croats, Poles, and Arabs. In all anti-soviet action films, Russian was spoken with bad mispronunciations. Even to this day, many in theU.S. consider the Egypt-born Omar Sharif to be the best Russian actor. This general trend of several past decades is discomforting especially because many actually-Russian actors, such as M. Barushnikov, O. Vidov, N. Andreichenko, S.Kramarov, and B. Sichkin, lived in Hollywood at that time.

The situation has begun to change only recently. In late 1990’s, Russian actors found new opportunities to work in Hollywood and in Russia at the same time.

Russian actor Levani Uchaneshvilli has been living in the United States, while simultaneously working for both, the Russian and the American movie industry. In the U.S., he played in the Independence Day, in Air Force One, in The Blade, and in The Virus.

In Russia, Uchaneshvilli took on roles in The Oligrach and in The Amphibian Man.

Another Russian actor, Boris Krut-onog, who played in about two dozen American and Russian films, was just recently featured in The Italian Job.

Oleg Taktarov similarly starred in a number of movies in the U.S. and Russia, including Let’s Make it Quick [Russia], Call Me Jinn [Russia], The Red Serpant, and Rollerball.

Vladimir Mashkov has also been spending some time in the United States the past few years also. He had roles in An American Rhapsody and in The Blue Lagoon.

Aleksandr Baluev, one of the few Russian actors that got to play in major Hollywood productions, starred in The Peacemaker, in The Abyss, and in The Proof of Life. In spite of his accomplishments, Baluev did not want to stay in theU.S. permanently and later moved back to Russia.

Many Russian actors that try out in Hollywood often are faced with the language barrier. It is precisely because of their accent that Russians seldom get major roles in films. Russians are usually assigned secondary functions – they play foreigners, mafia members, and strangers. The Real Russians society in Hollywood that was created by Oleg Vidov is now fighting this margi-nalization.

It will be worthwhile mentioning for the end that only recently four Russian films were released to America’s big screens: Sokurov’s Russian Ark, Konchalovsky’sHouse of Fools, Lugin’s The Oligarch, and Rogozhkin’s The Coo-coo Bird. The trend of welcoming Russia’s contribution to film is slowly returning to the United States.        

VI. List of literature

1. Serhiy Trymbach’s article about history of Ukrainian cinema.

2. The movie encyclopedia

3. Wonderful Window: A Brief History of World Cinema, R.Ruineev

4. Hollywood without mask, U.A.Komov

5. Article «Hollywood and its role in our lives»

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