Donatas Banionis is remembered on screen for work that changed what came after it.
The record lists Donatas Banionis as Soviet and Lithuanian actor (1924-2014).
Donatas Banionis was born at Kaunas in 1924. His recorded nationality is Russia. He trained at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
The studio system was at its height in this period: contracts were long, the output was industrial, and a handful of studios decided who worked.
The record gives his roles in the industry as theatre director, stage actor and film actor.
His name is attached above all to performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin. A film outlives its reviews, its budget and usually its studio; what remains is whether anyone still watches it.
The awards record reads: Order of Honour (2009), Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the October Revolution (1981) and Order of Friendship (1999).
That the work was made from Russia shaped it: national industries differ in what they finance, who they cast and which audiences they can reach.
Donatas Banionis died in 2014, aged 90. The films remain, which is the only form in which a screen career survives.
Achievements
- Order of Honour — 2009
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Order of the October Revolution — 1981
- Order of Friendship — 1999
- Worked as theatre director, stage actor and film actor
