Yuriy Stepanov

Yuri Stepanov was a popular Russian actor of film and theatre. He was born Yuri Konstantinovich Stepanov on June 7, 1967, in the village of Rysyevo, Irkutsk province, Russia. His father, Konstantin Stepanov, was director of a Soviet collective farm in Siberia. His mother was a schoolteacher. Young Yuri Stepanov grew up in rural Siberia. There he enjoyed fishing and hunting with his father. As a schoolboy, he caught the acting bug and joined amateur theatre in his community. From 1984 - 1988 he studied at the Irkutsk Theatrical School under Nadezda Arno and Valentina Dulova. There he was spotted by an agent and was invited to Moscow. From 1988 - 1992 he studied acting at State Institute of Theatrical Arts (GITIS) under Petr Fomenko, graduating in 1992. Yuri Stepanov had a successful stage career with the company of Petr Fomenko in Moscow. He made memorable appearances in classical plays, most notably as flamboyant crook Chichikov in the "Dead Souls" by Nikolay Gogol and as Benjamin in "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner, for which he was awarded the Prize of Moscow Theatrical Festival in 1993. Later he went on to play in Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" and in the Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" among other plays. In 1991, Yuri Stepanov made his film debut in Alexander Pushkin's "Povesti Belkina." Then he went on to work with the best filmmakers in Russia, such as Danelia, Abdrashitov, German and Dostal. Stepanov made a solid performance in _Vremya tantsora (1998)_ by director Vadim Abdrashitov and later earned wide recognition as Glymov in the popular series The Penal Battalion (2004) by director Nikolai Dostal. Yuri Stepanov was married to Irina Stepanova, a costume designer. The couple had two sons and were expecting their third child; at the time of Stepanov's tragic death, his wife was 8 month pregnant. Yuri Stepanov died after a traffic accident on March 3, 2010, in Moscow, and was laid to rest next to his fellow actors, Vladislav Galkin, Aleksandr Dedyushko and Igor Starygin, in Troekurovskoe cemetery in Moscow, Russia. His tragic death caused a considerable mourning in Russia. Director Nikolai Dostal said that he lost a good friend and Russia lost a great actor.