Georgiy Daneliya

Georgiy Nikolozis dze Daneliya (25 August 19304 April 2019) was a Soviet, Russian and Georgian film director and screenwriter. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1989 and a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1997.

Early life Georgiy Daneliya was born in Tbilisi into a Georgian family. His father Nikolai Dmitrievich Danelia (1902–1981) came from peasants. He moved to Moscow following the October Revolution, finished the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering and joined Mosmetrostroy where he spent the rest of his life working as an engineer and a manager at different levels. Georgiy's mother Maria Ivlianovna Anjaparidze (1905–1980) belonged to a noble Anjaparidze family known since the 13th century and recognized by the Russian Empire in 1880. She worked as a film director, a second unit director and an assistant director at the Tbilisi Film Studio and Mosfilm. Her sister (Daneliya's aunt) Veriko Anjaparidze was a popular Georgian stage and cinema actress who was married to Mikheil Chiaureli, a prominent Soviet film director. Their daughter Sofiko Chiaureli was also a famous actress who later starred in Daneliya's comedy Don't Grieve along with her mother. To avoid censorship, Danelia paid a visit to Vladimir Baskakov, one of the head officials at the State Committee for Cinematography, and assured him they had nothing tricky on their minds. After that the work became "easy, fast and fun". In Gentlemen of Fortune (1971) Daneliya acted as a creative director and a screenwriter.

Gentlemen of Fortune gathered 65 million viewers on the year of release and became the 12th most viewed Soviet film, while Afonya was seen by 62.2 million people, reaching the 15th place. Mimino won the Golden Prize at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. The Autumn Marathon received the Golden Shell at the 1979 San Sebastián International Film Festival as well as two Pasinetti Awards at the 36th Venice International Film Festival.

In 1976 he was a member of the jury at the 26th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1986 Daneliya directed a cult classic sci-fi film Kin-dza-dza!.

More recently, he was involved in an animation project Ku! Kin-dza-dza! (a straight remake of his earlier work Kin-dza-dza!) and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts. Between 2003 and 2015 he also published a trilogy of memoirs entitled "A Passenger Without a Ticket", "Toasted Drains To the Dregs" and "The Cat Is Gone, But the Smile Is Left". They are written in a typical Danelian manner, mixing laugh-out-loud anecdotes with some sad memories and lyrical life stories.

Personal life Daneliya was officially married two times. His first wife (1951–1956) was Irina Ginzburg, a lawyer, daughter of a high-ranking Soviet official Semyon Ginzburg, at the time a Deputy Minister of Oil Industry of the USSR. They had a daughter Svetlana Daneliya who also became a lawyer. Between 1957 and 1984 Daneliya lived in a civil union with an acclaimed Russian actress Lyubov Sergeyevna Sokolova who appeared in a number of his movies. They had a son Nikolai Sokolov-Daneliya (1959–1985), a film director and a poet who died at the age of 26 following an "accident". Some claimed it was a drug overdose. Shortly before his death Daneliya left the family for Galina Ivanovna Yurkova (born 1944), a film director and his regular collaborator since then. He adopted her son Kirill (born 1968) and gave him his surname; Kirill became an artist. Daneliya has six grandchildren.

In 1980, Georgiy Daneliya survived a clinical death after being diagnosed with peritonitis and spent a year in hospital. In his final years, he rarely left his apartment. According to his wife Galina Yurkova-Daneliya, he had been suffering from a progressing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for many years.

Trademarks Similar to Leonid Gaidai and Eldar Ryazanov, Daneliya co-wrote screenplays to the majority of his movies (sometimes uncredited) and introduced many distinguishing trademarks in the process. After Thirty Three (1965) Yevgeny Leonov turned into his close friend and "a lucky charm".

Filmography As director Vasisuali Lohankin (Васисуалий Лоханкин) (1958); short Also People (Тоже люди) (1959); short Splendid Days (Серёжа) (1960); co-directed with Igor Talankin The Road to Berth (Путь к причалу) (1962) Walking the Streets of Moscow (Я шагаю по Москве) (1964) Thirty Three (Тридцать три) (1965) Don't Grieve (Не горюй!) (1968) Hopelessly Lost (Совсем пропащий) (1973) Afonya (Афоня) (1975) Mimino (Мимино) (1977) Autumn Marathon (Осенний марафон) (1979) Tears Were Falling (Слёзы капали) (1982) Kin-dza-dza! (Кин-Дза-Дза!) (1986) Passport (Паспорт) (1990) Nastya (Настя) (1993) Heads and Tails (Орёл и Решка) (1995) Fortune (Фортуна) (2000) Ku! Kin-dza-dza! (Ку! Кин-дза-дза) (2013)

As screenwriter 1971 – Gentlemen of Fortune (Джентльмены удачи); with Viktoriya Tokareva 1988 – Frenchman (Француз); with Sergei Bodrov 1988 – Hello from Charlie the Trumpet player (Привет от Чарли Трубача); with Sergei Dernov

As actor 1942 — Giorgi Saakadze (Георгий Саакадзе) as peasant boy 1951 — The Unforgettable Year 1919 (Незабываемый 1919 год) as guitar player 1955 — Mexican (Мексиканец) as guy with a guitar 1963 — Walking the Streets of Moscow (Я шагаю по Москве) as shoeshine man 1969 — Don't Grieve (Не горюй!) as station officer 1971 — Gentlemen of Fortune (Джентльмены удачи) as passerby 1977 — Mimino (Мимино) as commander of the crew of the aircraft «Tbilisi — Moscow» 1979 — Autumn Marathon (Осенний марафон) as Otto Skorzeny, officer in a television movie that Buzykins are watching 1982 — Tears Were Falling (Слёзы капали) as a passenger on the tram 1986 — Kin-dza-dza! (Кин-дза-дза!) as Abradox, ruler of the planet Alpha 1990 — Passport (Паспорт) as arab on a donkey 1993 — Nastya (Настя) as cultural worker 1995 — Heads and Tails (Орёл и решка) as design engineer 2000 — Fortune (Фортуна) as kingpin 2006 — Carnival Night 2 (Карнавальная ночь-2, или 50 лет спустя) as cameo appearance 2013 — Ku! Kin-dza-dza (Ку! Кин-дза-дза) as Camomile / Diogenes (voices)