true story about Soviet Russia under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. In one of his briefest roles, Chaliapin dies in the arms of Gary Cooper in the opening scenes of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), based on Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel. Of Chaliapin's early film roles, one of the most memorable was in Victor Tourjansky's Prisoner of the Volga (1959). Much of his filmography lies in Italian films, including an appearance as Julius Caesar in Federico Fellini's film Roma. Chaliapin was reunited with his mother, who then was 87 years old, in Rome in 1960. His mother's emigration was helped by the reforms (the so-called "thaw") of then Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev. The price of this was having to leave behind a museum-quality home and a magnificent art collection in Moscow as collected by Feodor Chaliapin, Sr. The only objects of art permitted to leave Russia were photograph albums of Chaliapin's childhood and youth in Moscow. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, instituted political and economic reforms known as perestroika. Under these reforms, Chaliapin was able to remove his father's remains from Paris to Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. The grave is marked by a white marble statue of Chaliapin, Sr. In 1992, Chaliapin died of natural causes after an illness in Rome, where he had lived since World War II. He was survived by his twin sister, Tatiana Chaliapin Chernoff, and several nieces and nephews. He is buried at the Cimitero Flaminio, Provincia di Roma, in Lazio, Italy. Selected filmography Into Her Kingdom (1926) – Russian Officer and Court Leader Volga Volga (1928) The Ship of Lost Souls (1929) – Nick Lancer Spy (1937) – Monk (uncredited) Exile Express (1939) – Kaishevshy Balalaika (1939) – Soldier (uncredited) My Life with Caroline (1941) – Sky Man (uncredited) Law of the Jungle (1942) – Belts Mission to Moscow (1943) – Shop Foreman (uncredited) For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) – Kashkin The Seventh Victim (1943) – Leo (uncredited) Three Russian Girls (1943) – Terkin Song of Russia (1944) – Maxim – Anna's Husband (uncredited) Lost in a Harem (1944) – Violinist (uncredited) A Royal Scandal (1945) Lackey (uncredited) Ziegfeld Follies (1945) Lieutenant ('This Heart of Mine') (uncredited) Arch of Triumph (1948) – Scheherazade's Chef (uncredited) Herod the Great (1959) Prisoner of the Volga (1959) – Boris Fomitsch The Cossacks (1960) – Hassan