27 June 1940
Born in Voroshilov (Ussuriysk), into a military family Boris Khmelnitsky — actor, composer. "The main Robin Hood of the USSR" and sex symbol of the 70s and 80s.
I have never acted in a bad movie.
He spent his childhood in garrisons, and his family moved through 12 cities. He studied music at the Officers' Clubs, which his father headed.
After school, he entered the Shchukin Theatre School, despite a severe stutter: as a child, he was afraid of a rooster.
To be a stuttering artist it's like being a runner with a broken leg
After my first year, during a performance, I rattled off my lines without a hitch. Although I continued to stutter in real life.
In my third year, I joined the Taganka Theatre, playing Nozdryov, Woland, and Mayakovsky. I also replaced Vysotsky in one of the performances.
At 25, he made his film debut: he played the adjutant of Pierre Bezukhov’s father in War and Peace.
A small role is sometimes more interesting and deeper in its acting than another leading role.
For his role in the film-opera "Prince Igor" he grew a beard and never shaved it off.
He achieved national success at 35, after playing the lead role in the film "Robin Hood's Arrows." He performed all his own stunts.
Khmelnitsky was like his hero: he fed the homeless on the streets and frozen soldiers on Kutuzovsky Prospekt in 93. He once missed a flight to take a stranger to the hospital.
According to his daughter, in 1982, Kirk Douglas offered Khmelnitsky a role in a film with a salary of $1 million. But the Soviet leadership forbade the actor from filming.
His last role was Ataman Borodaty in Vladimir Bortko’s film “Taras Bulba”.
In the 90s, he acted little - he considered the films and TV series that were released at that time to be too primitive.
He was apolitical, but during the State Emergency Committee coup, he barricaded himself in the White House for three days along with Rostropovich, Govorukhin, and Pashutin – eating watermelon and “defending the Motherland.”
He was almost more proud of the title of Moscow champion in billiards, which he had played all his life, than of the title of People's Artist.
He died in 2008 in Moscow from cancer, he was 67.
