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Alexandr Kajdanovsky, a Russian actor, director, and screenwriter, is best remembered for his roles in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. He left junior high school to attend a technical college, training to become a welder. Uninterested in a working-class future, he began studying acting at The Shchukhin Theatre School in Moscow in 1965. Before graduating in 1969, he appeared in his first film, Tainstvennaya stena (1968) (A Mysterious Wall), and then worked as a stage actor. Dissatisfied with his career, Kajdanovsky joined the army in 1973, serving in the cavalry for several years.
Director Nikita Mikhalkov discovered Kajdanovsky and cast him as the lead in the civil war drama At Home Among Strangers, a Stranger Among His Own (1974). By the late 1970s, he had roles in notable films such as the adventure tales Propavshaya ekspeditsiya (1975) (The Lost Expedition), Zolotaya rechka (1977) (Golden River), and the fantasy Pilot Pirx's Inquest (1979). His career took a major turn when Andrei Tarkovsky cast him in the lead role in Stalker (1979). Kajdanovsky attended Tarkovsky's writing seminar and, influenced by him, wrote and directed Prostaya smert (1985) (An Ordinary Death), an adaptation of a Leo Tolstoy story, which received acclaim at the Malaga Film Festival. His leading roles in the Spanish film El aliento del diablo (1993) (The Devil's Breath) and the Hungarian Bűvös vadász (1994) (Magic Hunter) brought him international recognition and an invitation to serve on the jury of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Sadly, his life was marred by alcoholism, which hindered his career, and he passed away on December 3, 1995, just three months shy of his 50th birthday.
