Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy (Russian: Василий Семенович Лановой; Ukrainian: Василь Семенович Лановий, Vasyl Semenovych Lanovyi) (born 1934) is a popular Soviet and Russian actor of Ukrainian descent who works in the Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow. He is also known as the President of Artek Festival of Films for Children. Lanovoy's honours include the KGB Prize, the Lenin Prize, and the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

Biography

Lanovoy was born to a family of Ukrainian peasants and was known as Vasyl Lanovyi in his child years. His parents, originally from the rural Odessa Oblast, escaped the Holodomor famine to Moscow. However, the World War II Nazi/Romanian occupation caught little Vasyl in southern Ukraine with his village relatives while his parents were evacuated to the Soviet rear as workers with a military-critical industrial company. Lanovoy has always positioned himself as a Ukrainian loyal to national culture, especially the Ukrainian folk music pieces of which he traditionally sings at his individual concerts.

Lanovoy is married to Irina Kupchenko, herself a famous Soviet actress and a fellow Ukrainian educated in Kiev. His first wife was another film star, Tatiana Samoilova, best known for her leading part in The Cranes Are Flying.