Boris Alekseevich Khmelnitsky was a renowned Russian actor of film and theatre, and a prominent member of the legendary Taganka company under the directorship of Yuriy Lyubimov.
Born on June 27, 1940, in Ussuriisk, a small town near Vladivostok in the Far East of the Soviet Union, Khmelnitsky was the son of Aleksei Khmelnitsky, a ranking officer in the Soviet Red Army who managed several Army clubs in the USSR. Growing up in a privileged environment, Khmelnitsky was encouraged to study literature, arts, and music from a young age, and was exposed to the vibrant atmosphere of his father's circle.
He studied music at Lvov College of Music, graduating in 1961 as an orchestral conductor, before pursuing his passion for acting at Shchukin Theatrical school in Moscow, where he graduated in 1966 as an actor. Khmelnitsky made his film debut in 1966 with a role in 'Kto vernetsa - dolyubit' directed by Leonid Osyka.
His breakthrough came with roles in 'Sofiya Perovskaya' (1967) directed by Lev Arnshtam, and 'Krasnaya palatka' (1970),cementing his status as a rising star in the Soviet film industry. In the USSR, he was best known for his portrayal of Robin Hood in 'Strely Robin Guda' (1975),a role he reprised in 'The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe' (1983).
From 1964 to 1984, Khmelnitsky was a member of the Taganka Theatre company in Moscow, where he worked under the direction of Yuriy Lyubimov alongside a talented ensemble of actors, including Vladimir Vysotskiy, Leonid Filatov, Venyamin Smekhov, Alla Demidova, Zinaida Slavina, Ivan Dykhovichnyy, Boris Galkin, Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Natalya Sayko, Nikolay Gubenko, Zhanna Bolotova, Nina Shatskaya, Leonid Yarmolnik, and others.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Khmelnitsky played leading roles in Taganka productions, including 'Pugachev' and 'Master i Margarita', a stage adaptation of the eponymous book by Mikhail A. Bulgakov. He also composed music for several Taganka productions.
Throughout his career, Khmelnitsky enjoyed widespread recognition in the former Soviet Union, and was part of the intellectual elite known as "the 60s generation." He was honored with the title of People's Actor of Russia in 2000. Khmelnitsky passed away on February 16, 2008, and was laid to rest next to his parents in Kuntsevskoe cemetery in Moscow, Russia. He is survived by his ex-wife Marianna Vertinskaya and their daughter Darya Khmelnitskaya.
