Leonid Bronevoy

Life and career

Bronevoy was born on December 17, 1928 in the city of Kyiv in the Jewish family of Solomon Iosifovich Bronevoy (Faktorovich) and Bella Lvovna Bronevaya. In childhood, he learned to play violin at the 10-year musical school under the Kyiv Conservatory. His teacher was the famous Kyiv master, professor David Solomonovich Berthier.

The father of the future actor, Solomon Iosifovich Bronevoy (whose true family name is Faktoróvich) represented the family of an Odessian confectioner, acted in Russian Civil War, who also worked at The State Political Directorate in 1920-1923, completed a legal education in Kyiv, where he met his future wife, a student of Economy Department. Solomon Bronevoy worked at the Institute of National Economy until dismissal on charges of Trotskyism. In 1928 before the birth of his son Solomon Iosifovich got a job in Kyiv District economic department of the Prosecutor General's Office. His elder brother, Alexander Iosifovich Bronevoy, helped him with getting that job. Later, Solomon Iosifovich was sent to Ivanovo. In 1933 was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and in 1934 in the rank of Major of State Security appointed the director of 6-th Department in USSR's People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). In 1935 he was dismissed from the NKVD and was appointed the chief of Kyiv's "culture and recreation park". On September 13, 1936, he was arrested and on March 9, 1937 he was sentenced to five years in prison (after the extension of the term he was released in 1946; till 1949 in exile, released in 1954). The actor's mother divorced him and changed his son's patronym to "Sergeyevich", but that did not help - as a "family of an enemy of the people" she, with her son, was sent into exile in the city of Kirov region Malmyzh.

In 1941, the family was allowed to return to Kyiv, but the World War II began and they were evacuated to the city of Chimkent, Kazakh SSR, where L.S. Bronevoy studied in high school and began to work independently. However, parents of Leonid Bronevoy never lived together since.

In 1950 L.S. Bronevoy graduated from the Alexander Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatrical Art Institute. After his graduation in 1950 he worked in Magnitogorsk and Orenburg drama theatres.

In 1953, Leonid took a chance and went to Moscow where he was able to immediately enter the third year of the Moscow Art Theater School (class of A.M. Karev) and successfully complete it in 1955. After finishing the School-Studio, the actor left Moscow and got in Grozny Drama Theatre. Then there were the Irkutsk Okhlopkov Drama Theater [ru], and Voronezh Koltsov Academic Drama Theater.

From 1962 to 1988 he was the leading actor of the Moscow Drama Theatre on Malaya Bronnaya [Wikidata]. Since 1988 - in the Moscow Lenkom Theatre.

Bronevoy achieved a star status in the USSR after playing the role of Heinrich Müller in the TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring. Despite any lack of physical resemblance to the historical chief of Gestapo, the portrayal became iconic due to the actor's natural charisma and sense of humor.

Other equally popular characters of Bronevoy were the Doctor in the comedy Formula of Love and the Duke of Hanover in The Very Same Munchhausen.

In subsequent years the actor played more than twenty roles in the movies. The last was the role of an old actor in Simple Things, for which he received the Nika Award in March 2008.

His name appeared on a petition against Russian annexation of Crimea, however, he himself stated in an interview that his name was placed without his permission, and that he, in fact, supports Vladimir Putin and Russian actions in Crimea.

He died in a hospital on 9 December 2017, one week before his 89th birthday.

Partial filmography

1. Comrade Arseny (1964) as Gendarme colonel
2. Lebedev vs Lebedev (1965) as Yevgeny Viktorovich
3. Your Contemporary (1967) as Minister secretary
4. Investigation Held by ZnaToKi (1971—1972, TV Series) as Kudrjashov, restaurant director
5. Acting As... (1973) as Tugodayev
6. Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973, TV Mini-Series) as Heinrich Müller
7. Just Several Words In Honour Of Mr. de Molière (1973, TV Movie) as Louis XIV of France
8. Ispolnyayushchiy obyazannosti (1973)
9. Did you call a doctor? (1974) as Leonid S. Medvedev, Professor, Head of therapeutic clinic
10. 'A' For the Summer (1974) as Stepan Petrovich, cook, speaking in verse
11. Tanya (1974, TV Movie) as Semyon Semyonovich Vasin
12. Pyatyorka za leto (1974)
13. Concerto for Two Violins (1975) as professor Leonid Medvedev
14. Olga Sergeyevna (1975) as Tyutyaev
15. Request to Speak (1975) as Petr Altukhov, former chairman
16. Mayakovsky Laughs or Bedbug-75 (1976) as Oleg Bayan
17. Proshu slova (1976) as Pyotr Vasilyevich Antukhov
18. Armed and Very Dangerous (1977) as Peter Dumphy
19. Savoy Hijacking (1979) as Jean Challot
20. The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) as Duke
21. We Aren't So Old! (1980) as Mikhail Ostashenko
22. Kakie nashi gody! (1981)
23. Agony (1981) as Ivan Manasevich-Manuilov
24. Return Of Resident (1982) as Johann Staube
25. Pokrovsky Gates (1982, TV Movie) as Arkady Velyurov
26. If to Believe Lopotukhin (1983) as Yuri Leonidovich, the headmaster / humanoid
27. A Month in the Country (1983) as Ignatius Ilyich Sрhpigelsky
28. Formula of Love (1984) as Doctor
29. Chicherin (1986) as Maxim Litvinov
30. Final of the Resident Mission (1986) as Johann Staube
31. Mysteriuous Inheritor (1987) as Civil law notary
32. Big Game (1988) as Vernier
33. The Physicists (1989) as Newton
34. Promised Heaven (1991) as Colonel Semen Yefremovich
35. Old Young People (1992) as Viktor Maksimovich, deputy
36. Italian Contract (1993) as Don Lucino
37. Equals to four France (1996, TV Series) as Shakhmatov
38. Schizophrenia (1997) as sartor
39. Ship of Doubles (1997) as general of FSB
40. Simple things (2007) as Vladimir Mikhailovich Zhuravlev
41. Guilty Without Fault (2008) as Mendelsson
42. Voice in animation
43. Plasticine Crow (1981) as Grandpa
44. Investigation Held by Kolobki (1986-1987) as Boss (in parts 1 and 2)

Honours and awards

1. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1971)
2. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1979)
3. People's Artist of the USSR (1987)[6]
4. People's Artist of Ukraine (2013)[7]
5. Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1982)
6. Order "For Merit to the Fatherland";
7. 1st class (13 September 2013)
8. 2nd class (1 December 2008, the award ceremony was held on December 17) for outstanding contributions to the development of domestic theatrical and cinematic arts, many years of creative activity
9. 3rd class (17 December 2003) for outstanding contribution to the development of national art
10. 4th class (25 August 1997) a great contribution to the development of theatrical arts
11. State Prize of the Russian Federation in Literature and Art in 1996 (29 May 1997)
12. Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1976) for his role of Heinrich Müller in the television series Seventeen Moments of Spring