1895-03-25 ( 130 years old ) in Bokhan, Irkutsk governorate, Russian Empire
Valéry Inkijinoff (Russian: Валерьян (Валерий) Иванович Инкижинов; 25 March 1895 – 26 September 1973) was a French actor of Russian-Buryat origin. His strong facial features made him a favourite villain of French cinema for exotic adventure films and crime movies.
Inkijinoff was born to a Christian Buryat father and a Russian mother in Irkutsk gubernia.
He studied at the Polytechnical Institute of Saint Petersburg 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, 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 by Vsevolod Pudovkin in 1928, a major Soviet propaganda film about a fictional British consolidation of Mongolia.
He was also an actor in the troop of Vsevolod Meyerhold and was then appointed as director of the movie and theater school of Kiev in Ukraine.
In 1930, while in France on a European tour, he refused to return to the USSR. According to Boris Shumyatsky, after Stalin learned Inkijinoff had never returned in 1934, said: "Too bad that the man escaped. Now he, probably, is dying to come back but, alas, too late." He starred in 2 movies while living in the Soviet Union, and contrary to Stalin's assumption, Inkijinoff became immensely popular in Europe, arguably the most successful Soviet actor abroad, starring in a total of 44 French, British, German, and Italian films.
In France he frequently played the part of Asian villains. His most active period was in the thirties, when he appeared in Les Bateliers de la Volga and the G. W. Pabst film Le drame de Shanghai. He played for Fritz Lang in 1959, in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and its sequel Das indische Grabmal, in which he played the role of the high priest Yama. In 1965, Philippe de Broca cast him as Monsieur Goh, the wise but scary Chinese who guarantees to the Jean-Paul Belmondo character a certain death in Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine.
His last movie was with Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale, where he played the role of Indian chief Spitting Bull in Les pétroleuses.
He was a great friend of Charles Dullin and Louis Jouvet, and had a long career in French theater, appearing for instance in Marie Galante by Jacques Deval.
He died at his home in Brunoy, Essonne, France, aged 78.
Source: Article "Valéry Inkijinoff" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies
Buryat in European Cinema
2024-01-25
The Legend of Frenchie King
1971-12-16
The Biggest Bundle of Them All
1968-01-17
The Blonde from Peking
1967-08-25
The Last Adventure
1967-04-12
O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo
1966-10-28
Up to His Ears
1965-12-04
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse
1964-09-17
License to Kill
1964-06-16
The Rebel Gladiators
1962-11-15
My Uncle from Texas
1962-09-28
The Triumph of Michael Strogoff
1961-12-15
Man Wants to Live
1961-11-06
Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World
1961-10-31
Journey to the Lost City
1960-10-01
Mistress of the World - Part II
1960-04-26
The Indian Tomb
1959-03-05
The Tiger of Eschnapur
1959-01-21
The Doctor of Stalingrad
1958-02-20
Corinna Darling
1956-12-22
Michael Strogoff
1956-12-14
Mata Hari's Daughter
1954-09-22
Maya
1949-12-09
La Renégate
1948-04-09
The Shanghai Drama
1938-09-23
Street Without Joy
1938-04-13
Rail Pirates
1938-01-19
The Wife of General Ling
1937-04-07
Friesennot
1935-11-19
Les Bateliers de la Volga
1935-07-05
Police File 909
1934-07-27
The Battle
1934-05-11
Amok
1934-02-21
Volga in Flames
1934-02-09
Typhoon
1933-08-25
A Man's Neck
1933-02-18
The Yellow Captain
1930-12-19
Storm Over Asia
1928-11-10
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