Vasily Semyonovich Lanovoy (; (16 January 1934 – 28 January 2021) was a Soviet and Ukrainian Russian actor who worked in the Vakhtangov Theatre, Moscow. He was 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. In 2019, he received the title of Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation. Acting career Lanovoy came to prominence through playing bold, dashing characters, combining heroic bravado with a sensitivity typical of Russian heroes, a tendency evident in many of his early features, such as Certificate of Maturity (1954) and Pavel Korchagin (1956). Lanovoy's many film roles from the 1960s include Anatole Kuragin in Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace and Count Vronsky in the screen version of Anna Karenina. By this time, he has tried to create complex psychological portraits of his characters. However, he is best known for his roles in iconic 1970s World War II-themed films. Lanovoy portrayed Ivan Varavva, one of the main characters in the 1971 saga Officers which became a life-affirming film for the Soviet Army officers. He also played a supporting role of SS General Karl Wolff in the cult spy thriller TV-series Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973). In 2000s, Lanovoy appeared primarily in the roles of Soviet-era party bosses, such as Yuri Andropov in the 2005 TV film Brezhnev. In 2013, he played the role of Cardinal Richelieu in Russian movie The Three Musketeers. Political views In 2014, he signed a petition supporting the actions of Vladimir Putin in the annexation of Crimea, for which he was banned from entering Ukraine. Crimea is since March 2014 under dispute by Russia and Ukraine. He was critical of the (late 2013 until early 2014) Ukrainian Euromaidan demonstrations, claiming that the United States were using Ukrainians for their own political gain. Personal life Lanovoy was born to a family of Ukrainian peasants. His parents, originally from the rural Odessa Oblast, escaped the famine to Moscow. However, the World War II Nazi/Romanian occupation caught little Vasily 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 was married to Irina Kupchenko, herself a famous Soviet actress educated in Kiev. His first wife was another film star, Tatiana Samoilova, best known for her leading part in