Anatoly Solonitsyn

Anatoly (Otto) Alekseyevich Solonitsyn (Russian: Анатолий (Отто) Алексеевич Солоницын; 30 August 1934 – 11 June 1982) was a Soviet actor known for his roles in Andrei Tarkovsky's films.

In his book Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky calls Solonitsyn his favorite actor,[2] and writes that Solonitsyn was intended to play the lead roles in his films Nostalghia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986), but the actor died before their production.

Tarkovsky admired Solonitsyn's ability to fully embody the ideas of the director.

When Tarkovsky was considering making a film adaptation of Dostoevsky's famous novel The Idiot, Solonitsyn was even ready to undergo plastic surgery to look more like the great Russian writer.

Allegedly, according to Viktor Sharun, the sound editor on Stalker, Solonitsyn, Tarkovsky and Larisa Tarkovskaya became ill due to exposure to toxic chemicals during filming on the location of the movie.