Donatas Banionis

Donatas Banionis (April 28, 1924 – September 4, 2014) was a Lithuanian and Soviet actor. He is best known in the West for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin. He was born in Kaunas,Lithuania.

Banionis began his career with some films in Lithuanian, but he would later play mainly in Russian language films. He has also worked outside the USSR like in the title role Francisco Goya of the USSR-GDR coproduction Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment(1971), directed by Konrad Wolf and in the title role as Ludwig van Beethoven in the 1976 DEFA-production Beethoven - Tage aus einem Leben. In addition to films, he is a popular actor in the theatre of Panevėžys, where he has been acting since the age of 17, and which was frequented by Donatas' fans from all over the former Soviet Union. His first teacher wasJuozas Miltinis. He also acted in Vilnius, in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre.

Selected filmography

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• Marytė (1947) - episode
• Nobody Wanted to Die (1966) - Vaitkus
• Beware of the Car (1966) - pastor
• Dead Season (1968) - Ladeinikov
• The Red Tent (1969)
• Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971) - Goya
• King Lear (1971)
• Solaris (1972) - Kris
• Mama, I'm Alive (1977)
• Faktas (1981)
• Niccolo Paganini (1985) - Luigi Germi
• Cry of the Dolphin (1987) - Bar-Mattai
• Anastasia (2006)