Valéry Inkijinoff
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n-Buryat
Buryats
The Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
origin.
His strong facial features made him a favourite villain of French cinema for exotic adventure films and crime movies.
Biography
Inkijinoff was born to a ChristianEastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Buryat
Buryats
The Buryats or Buriyads , numbering approximately 436,000, are the largest ethnic minority group in Siberia and are mainly concentrated in their homeland, the Buryat Republic, a federal subject of Russia...
family of a teacher in Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
gubernia.
He studied at the Polytechnical Institute
Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University
Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University is a major Russian technical university situated in Saint Petersburg. Previously it was known as the Peter the Great Polytechnical Institute and Kalinin Polytechnical Institute .-Imperial Russia:...
of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
and was for a time one of the resident actors of an imperial theater of this city. At the beginning of his career in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, he appeared first as stuntman in a few movies and then as director and as actor. His major lead role during the Russian part of his career is The Son in Storm Over Asia
Storm Over Asia
Storm Over Asia is a 1928 Russian film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin, written by Osip Brik, Ivan Novokshonov and starring Valéry Inkijinoff. It forms part of Pudovkin's "revolutionary trilogy", alongside Mother and The End of St...
by Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Pudovkin
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin was a Russian and Soviet film director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage...
in 1928, a major historic movie about civil war in Mongolia.
He was also an actor in the troop of Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
and was then appointed as director of the movie and theater school of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
Later, he emigrated to Germany and then France, where he frequently played the part of Asian villains. His most active period was in the thirties
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
, when he appeared in Les bateliers de la Volga and the G. W. Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
film Le drame de Shanghai
The Shanghai Drama
The Shanghai Drama is a 1938 French drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.-Cast:* Raymond Rouleau - Franchon* Louis Jouvet - Ivan* Christl Mardayn - Kay Murphy, cabaret singer * Elina Labourdette - Nana, the nurse...
. He played for Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
in 1959, in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and its sequel Das indische Grabmal
The Indian Tomb (1959 film)
The Indian Tomb aka. Journey to the Lost City, or in original German, Das indische Grabmal, is a 1959 German adventure drama film directed by Fritz Lang...
, in which he played the role of the high priest Yama. In 1965, Philippe de Broca
Philippe de Broca
Philippe de Broca was a French film director.Born Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, the son of a photographer of noble origins. de Broca was a cinephile from an early age, and he studied at the l'École technique de photographie et de cinématographie...
cast him as Monsieur Goh, the wise but scary Chinese who guarantees to the Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
character a certain death in Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine.
His last movie was with Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
and Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
, where he played the role of Indian chief Spitting Bull in Les pétroleuses.
He was a great friend of Charles Dullin
Charles Dullin
Charles Dullin was a French actor, theater manager and director.-Life:Dullin was a student of Jacques Copeau...
and Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet was a renowned French actor, director, and theatre director.- Life :Overcoming speech impediments and sometimes paralyzing stage fright as a young man, Jouvet's first important association was with Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, beginning in 1913...
, and had a long career in French theater, appearing for instance in Marie Galante by Jacques Deval.
He died at his home in Brunoy aged 78.