ALEXANDER B. GODUNOV, FROM BOLSHOI TO HOLLYWOOD

Today, The Grandma has been watching Witness, one of her favourite films, interpreted by Alexander Godunov, the Russian-American ballet dancer and film actor, who died on a day like today in 1995.

Alexander Borisovich Godunov, in Russian Александр Борисович Годунов (November 28, 1949-c. May 1995) was a Russian-American ballet dancer and film actor. A member of the Bolshoi Ballet, he became the troupe's Premier danseur.

In 1979, he defected to the United States. While continuing to dance, he also began working as a supporting actor in Hollywood films. He had prominent roles in films such as Witness (1985) and Die Hard (1988).

Godunov was born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Sakhalin, Russian SFSR, USSR) in the Russian Far East. He began his ballet studies at the age of nine in Riga in 1958 in the same class as Mikhail Baryshnikov. He said his mother put him in ballet to prevent him from becoming a hooligan. He and Baryshnikov became friends and helped each other throughout their years there.

Godunov joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 and rose to become Premier danseur. His teachers there included Aleksey Yermolayev.

In 1973, Godunov won a gold medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition. After playing Vronsky in 1975's Anna Karenina and Lemisson, the Royal minstrel, in the 1978 film version of J. B. Priestley's 31 June, he became well-known in the Soviet Union as a movie actor, receiving the title of Honoured Artist of the RSFSR in 1976.

On August 21, 1979, while on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in New York City, Godunov contacted authorities and asked for political asylum. After discovering his absence, the KGB responded by putting his wife, Lyudmila Vlasova, a soloist with the company, on a plane to Moscow, but the flight was stopped before takeoff. After three days, with involvement by President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the U.S. State Department was satisfied that Vlasova had chosen to return to the Soviet Union of her own free will and allowed the plane to depart.

The incident was dramatized in the Soviet docudrama film, Flight 222 (1985). Vlasova later said that while Godunov loved American culture and had long desired to live in the United States, she felt she was too Russian to live in the United States. The couple divorced in 1982.

Godunov joined American Ballet Theatre and danced as a principal dancer until 1982, when he had a falling-out with Mikhail Baryshnikov, the director of the company. A press release for American Ballet Theatre stated a change in the troupe's repertoire did not provide Godunov with sufficient roles. Following his release, he traveled with his own troupe and danced as a guest artist around the world with a number of prominent ballet troupes.

Godunov also began working in Hollywood as a film actor. His acting roles included an Amish farmer in Witness (1985), a comically narcissistic symphony conductor in The Money Pit (1986) and one of the thieves in Die Hard (1988). He declined roles which typecast him as a dancer or as an action villain, as in Die Hard.

In the mid-1990s he appeared in Canadian television commercials for Labatt Ice Beer.

Godunov married Lyudmila Vlasova, a soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet, in 1971. The couple had no children and divorced in 1982 after a long separation.

Godunov became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1987.

More information: Los Angeles Times

I guess I have been recognized like 

an actor more than a dancer
t was very tragic life for him, 

not freeing himself and his talent. 

But it is nobody's fault that he didn't know himself, 

and also there was no one
around to help him.
 

Nina Alovert

LUKAS HAAS, FROM WITNESS TO A GREAT MUSIC CAREER

Today, The Grandma has been watching one of her favourite films, Witness, interpreted by Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis and Lukas Haas, the young actor and musician, who was born on a day like today in 1976.

Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.

Haas was born in West Hollywood, California, the son of Berthold Haas, an artist, and Emily Tracy, an author. His mother is from Texas, and his father emigrated from Germany. He has two brothers: twins Simon Jakoway Haas and Nikolai Johannes Haas, both designers.

Haas was discovered at the age of five in his kindergarten by casting director Margery Simkin. His first screen role was as a child in the 1983 nuclear holocaust film Testament. He became more widely known in 1985 when, at the age of eight, he appeared in Witness. His performance as an Amish boy who is the sole witness to a police officer's murder was well received by critics.

Haas followed this with roles in films such as Lady in White and Solarbabies. In 1989, he appeared in the film Music Box, as the 12-year-old son of Jessica Lange's character, and grandson of an immigrant who is accused of being a war criminal. For this role he was nominated for the Young Artist Award. He also starred in the films Alan and Naomi and Rambling Rose.

Haas received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Ryan White in the television movie The Ryan White Story, about an American teenager who contracted AIDS through contaminated blood treatments for hemophilia. On stage in 1988, he performed in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center in New York City.

He went on to appear in Everyone Says I Love You, Mars Attacks!, and Breakfast of Champions. His work in the 2000s includes Brick, Last Days, and While She Was Out.

More information: Facebook-Lukas Haas

Haas also gained recognition for his portrayal of The Patient in the music video for the My Chemical Romance song Welcome to the Black Parade.

In March 2010, Haas was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. More recently he appeared in Red Riding Hood, Contraband and Christopher Nolan's Inception. He has made guest appearances in Amazing Stories, both the 1985 and the 2002 versions of The Twilight Zone, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, As Told by Ginger, The Zeta Project, 24, Criminal Minds, Dirt and Entourage. He had a role on the 2012 television series Touch.

During 2014 he co-starred also in the horror film Dark Was the Night.

In 2018, Haas played astronaut Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot, in First Man, a film about the first human moon landing space flight in 1969. The film was directed by Damien Chazelle, with whom he'll reunite in the 2022 film Babylon.

Haas is the drummer and pianist for The Rogues. He has composed parts of several film soundtracks, including Breakfast of Champions and Last Days, and performed as a guest musician on the Macy Gray album The Trouble with Being Myself and the Jet album Shaka Rock.

In 2008, he released a solo EP. He appeared in the music videos for OutKast's Roses, My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade, UGK's International Player's Anthem (I Choose You), Death Cab For Cutie's Cath…,"and Jet's She's a Genius.

On February 25, 2011, the media announced that Haas had released a musical collaboration with Isabel Lucas called Made for You. The recorded and video clip were filmed in Lukas' LA studio, and were later revealed to be a marketing campaign of the Portuguese band The Gift for their album Explode.

More information: Instagram-Lukas Haas

 I like both music and acting,
and they both have a lot in common
-timing, immediacy, stuff like that.
But acting is more regimented.
You wait around for hours,
you don't get to write the script,
you get hired.
Music represents me better.
I'm not acting; I'm just expressing myself.

Lukas Haas

PETER WEIR, THE AUSTRALIAN POINT OF VIEW IN CINEMA

Today, The Grandma has decided to stay at home watching some films, and she has chosen some of Peter Weir, who was born on a day like today in 1944.

Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Green Card, Gallipoli... are some of the best masterpieces of this Australian genius.

Peter Lindsay Weir (born 21 August 1944) is an Australian film director.

He was a leading figure in the Australian New Wave cinema movement (1970–1990), with films such as the mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), the supernatural thriller The Last Wave (1977) and the historical drama Gallipoli (1981). The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multinational production The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

After the success of The Year of Living Dangerously, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films covering most genres -many of them major box office hits- including Academy Award-nominated films such as the thriller Witness (1985), the drama Dead Poets Society (1989), the romantic comedy Green Card (1990), the social science fiction comedy-drama The Truman Show (1998) and the epic historical drama Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). For his work on these five films, Weir personally accrued six Academy Award nominations as either a director, writer or producer.

Since 2003, Weir's productivity has declined, having directed only one subsequent feature, the well received box-office flop The Way Back (2010).

 More information: FSR

Weir was born in Sydney, the son of Peggy and Lindsay Weir, a real estate agent.

Weir attended The Scots College and Vaucluse Boys' High School before studying arts and law at the University of Sydney. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with fellow students, including Phillip Noyce and the future members of the Sydney filmmaking collective Ubu Films.

Weir's major breakthrough in Australia and internationally was the lush, atmospheric period mystery Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), made with substantial backing from the state-funded South Australian Film Corporation and filmed on location in South Australia and rural Victoria.

Weir scored a major Australian hit and further international praise with his next film, the historical adventure-drama Gallipoli (1981). Scripted by the Australian playwright David Williamson, it is regarded as classic Australian cinema.

The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multinational production The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), again starring Gibson, playing opposite top Hollywood female lead Sigourney Weaver in a story about journalistic loyalty, idealism, love and ambition in the turmoil of Sukarno's Indonesia of 1965. It was an adaptation of the novel by Christopher Koch, which was based in part on the experiences of Koch's journalist brother Philip, the ABC's Jakarta correspondent and one of the few western journalists in the city during the 1965 attempted coup. The film also won Linda Hunt (who played a man in the film) an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Weir's first American film was the successful thriller Witness (1985), the first of two films he made with Harrison Ford, about a boy who sees the murder of an undercover police officer by corrupt co-workers and has to be hidden away in his Amish community to protect him. Weir directed Ford in his only performance to receive an Academy Award nomination, while child star Lukas Haas also received wide praise for his debut film performance.

It was followed by the darker, less commercial The Mosquito Coast (1986), Paul Schrader's adaptation of Paul Theroux's novel, with Ford playing a man obsessively pursuing his dream to start a new life in the Central American jungle with his family.

More information: NME

Weir's next film, Dead Poets Society, was a major international success, with Weir again receiving credit for expanding the acting range of its Hollywood star. Robin Williams was mainly known for his anarchic stand-up comedy and his popular TV role as the wisecracking alien in Mork & Mindy; in this film, he played an inspirational teacher in a dramatic story about conformity and rebellion at an exclusive New England prep school in the 1950s.

Fearless (1993) returned to darker themes and starred Jeff Bridges as a man who believes he has become invincible after surviving a catastrophic air crash.

After five years, Weir returned to direct his biggest success to date, The Truman Show (1998), a fantasy-satire of the media's control of life. The Truman Show was both a box office and a critical success.

In 2003, Weir returned to period drama with Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe.

Weir wrote and directed his next film, The Way Back (2010), a historical epic about escapees from a Soviet gulag, which was well received critically but not a financial success.

On 14 June 1982, Weir was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to the film industry.

More information: Directors Guild of America

Movies tie things up in an arbitrary length of time,
but I have always liked things that aren't fully realized.

Peter Weir

HARRISON FORD: FROM HAN SOLO TO INDIANA JONES

Harrison Ford aka Han Solo in Star Wars

Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor and film producer. He gained worldwide fame for his starring roles as Han Solo in the Star Wars film series and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. 

Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner (1982); John Book in the thriller Witness (1985), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor; and Jack Ryan in the action films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994).

More information: Star Wars

Harrison Ford aka John Book in Witness

His career has spanned six decades and includes roles in several Hollywood blockbusters; including the epic war film Apocalypse Now (1979); the legal drama Presumed Innocent (1990); the action film The Fugitive (1993); the political action thriller Air Force One (1997); and the psychological thriller What Lies Beneath (2000). 

Six of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry: American Graffiti (1973), The Conversation (1974), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Blade Runner.

Ford has been in other films, including Heroes (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and Hanover Street (1979). Ford also co-starred alongside Gene Wilder in the buddy-Western The Frisco Kid (1979), playing a bank robber with a heart of gold. He then starred as Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott's cult sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), and in a number of dramatic-action films: Peter Weir's Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986), and Roman Polanski's Frantic (1988).

Harrison Ford aka Indiana Jones

The 1990s brought Ford the role of Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy's Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994); as well as leading roles in Alan Pakula's Presumed Innocent (1990) and The Devil's Own (1997); Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (1993); Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina (1995); and Wolfgang Petersen's Air Force One (1997). 

Ford also played straight dramatic roles, including an adulterous husband in both Presumed Innocent (1990) and What Lies Beneath (2000), and a recovering amnesiac in Mike Nichols' Regarding Henry (1991).

More information: Indiana Jones

The actor's popularity is evanescent; 

applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.

Harrison Ford