As a child, Yevgeny Leonov dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot mainly because his father worked at an aircraft manufacturing plant. During the Great Patriotic War, like his entire family, he worked in an arms and aviation factory. After the war, he joined the Moscow Art Theatre School, where he studied under Mikhail Yanshin. From 1948, he played at the Stanislavsky Theatre.
In 1955, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In 1968, Leonov became an actor at the Mayakovsky Theatre, which he left in 1974, following a disagreement with the artistic director at the time, Andrei Goncharov (ru). He joined the troupe of the Lenkom Theatre, which had recently been taken over by Mark Zakharov.
Evgeny Leonov became a favorite actor of Georgy Danielia, appearing in all of his films. He attracted the attention of critics for the accuracy of his tragic roles and the naturalness of his acting. Moreover, many famous actors avoided playing in the same films as him because his natural way of acting made them tense.
Despite his brief appearance in Dainelia's Autumn Marathon (1980), his hilarious role as a simple, nosy, and drunk man earned him the Vassiliev Brothers Prize and the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival. For many, Leonov was to the Russians what Fernandel was to the French.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1986.
In 1991, during a tour in Germany, he suffered a heart attack and remained in a coma for 10 days.
Leonov died in 1994 while on his way to the Lenkom Theatre in Moscow, the victim of a pulmonary embolism. Despite the bitter winter cold, more than half a million people turned out in a procession to a memorial service held at his theatre. He was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery. That same year he was posthumously awarded the Kinotavr Prize for his entire work.
Images
1986 - Kin-dza-dza! (Кин-дза-дза!) de Gueorgui DANELIA
1979 - Marathon d’automne (Осенний марафон) de Gueorgui DANELIA
1961 - La Croisière tigrée (Полосатый рейс) de Vladimir FETINE
