Alexander Belyavsky

Alexander Borisovich Belyavsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Бори́сович Беля́вский, 6 May 1932, Moscow, USSR – 8 September 2012, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet/Russian actor who appeared in more than one hundred films. Belyavsky was also the first presenter of the hugely popular TV Show The 13 Chairs Tavern. In 1988 he was designated The Meritorious Artist of Russia, in 2003 - The People's Artist of Russia. In September 2012 Alexander Belyavsky committed suicide.

Alexander Belyavsky was born in Moscow, a son of Boris Moiseyevich Belyavsky and his wife Lyubov Alexandrovna, the elder of their three children. After finishing school in 1949 he enrolled into the Geological research faculty of the Moscow's Gold and Non-ferrous metals Institute where he studied up until 1955, making frequent trips to Central Asian Soviet republics for a professional practice. Belyavsky started working in Irkutsk, in the East-Siberian Geological department and it was there that he's made his debut as an actor, at the Irkutsk Drama Theatre where he played Molchalin in Alexander Griboyedov's Woe from Wit. Back in Moscow Belyavsky continued working as a geology engineer, occasionally taking part in amateur theatrical productions staged by The Theachers' House. It was only three years later that he quit his regular job to enroll into the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute and join the Vladimir Etush's class at the Vakhtangov Theatre. In the summer of 1957 he made his debut on screen in the film called Tales About Lenin (as a young worker Kolya). Three years later, still a student, he appeared in the Kiev Studio's film Save Our Souls (1960).

In 1961 Belyavsky graduated with honors and was invited to join the Moscow Theatre of Satire. Soon the Polish director Leonard Butchkovsky cast him in the Aborted Flight film. While working in Warsaw Belyavsky learned the language which later helped him a lot: he appeared in six Polish films, including the popular TV wartime thriller series The Four Tankmen and a Dog (as a Soviet captain Pavlov). In 1964 he left the Theatre of Satire but never severed ties with its troupe, having become the co-director (with Georgy Zelinsky) and the first presenter of the popular TV series 13 Chairs Tavern. The idea of a TV show ridiculing a good-for-nothing 'firm' (based in Poland, apparently), members of which meet at the tavern to discuss their (highly ridiculous) problems and perform Polish (later Western) pop songs in a karaoke-style, belonged to Belyavsky himself and proved to be a winning formula.

In 1964 Belyavsky joined the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, then in 1966 the Theatre-Studio of a Cinema Actor. All in all he appeared in more than one hundred films (working in Poland, East Germany, North Korea, Finland, France, Chekhoslovakia, USA), one of his best-known roles being that of villainous Fox in Stanislav Govorukhin's The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (Mesto vstrechi izmenit nelzya, 1979). In the 1990s Belyavsky hosted several TV shows; in 1993 he played Leonid Brezhnev in Igor Gostev's Grey Wolves. In 1999 he returned to the theatre and in 2003 was awarded the title of The People's Artist of Russia.

In December 2003, Alexander Belyavsky suffered a stroke which left him incapacitated. On September 8, 2012, Alexander Belyavsky was found on the ground by the house where he lived, having fallen, apparently, from the staircase window between the 5th and the 6th floor of the house he lived in. He was buried at the Kuzminskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Family

Alexander Belyavsky was married twice. He had a son (born on March 22, 1973) and daughter (born in 1976) from his first marriage. His first son drowned in a river in the summer of 1975 at the age of two. From his second wife, he had another daughter (born on August 28, 2003).

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