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Boris Smirnov was a Russian actor affiliated with the Moscow Art Theatre, best known for his film role as Prince Vasili Kuragin in the 1965 adaptation of War and Peace.
Born Boris Aleksandrovich Smirnov on October 26, 1908, in St. Petersburg, Russia, he studied acting at the Leningrad Institute of Theatrical Arts from 1925 to 1929, graduating as an actor. Between 1929 and 1950, he performed with various Leningrad stage companies, including the Theatre of Lensovet and the Leningrad Theatre of Comedy. His notable stage roles during this period included Pavel Korchagin in Kak zakalyalas stal and Hamlet in Shakespeare's classic, both staged at the Theatre of Lensovet.
From 1955 until 1982, Smirnov was a permanent member of the Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT). There, he performed alongside renowned Russian actors such as Alla Tarasova, Anatoli Ktorov, Mark Prudkin, Olga Androvskaya, Anastasiya Georgievskaya, Mikhail Yanshin, Aleksey Gribov, Boris Livanov, Mikhail Kedrov, Viktor Stanitsyn, Angelina Stepanova, Vasili Toporkov, Mikhail Bolduman, Pavel Massalsky, as well as the next generation of MKhAT actors including Kira Golovko, Iya Savvina, Alla Pokrovskaya, Anastasiya Voznesenskaya, Irina Miroshnichenko, Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Oleg Efremov, Oleg Tabakov, Andrey Myagkov, Vladimir Kashpur, Viktor Sergachyov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Stanislav Lyubshin, Sergey Sazontev, Avangard Leontev, and Igor Vasilev.
Over a career spanning more than six decades, Smirnov appeared in around 30 film and television productions. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was officially cast as Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in four films and three stage plays at the Moscow Art Theatre. Following these portrayals, director Sergey Bondarchuk cast him as the cunning and manipulative Prince Vasili Kuragin in War and Peace (1965). Smirnov also took leading and supporting roles in classic Russian stage works, such as Paratov in A. Ostrovsky's Without Dowry, Ivan Karamazov in a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, and Ivanov in Anton Chekhov's play of the same name.
Smirnov was honored as People's Actor of the USSR in 1963. He received the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Revolution, and various other accolades from the Soviet and Russian governments. He passed away on December 19, 1982, in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
