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Valéry Inkijinoff
Valéry Inkijinoff
Валерий Инкижинов
	Inkijinoff in Storm Over Asia (1928)
Born	Valery Ivanovich Inkizhinov (Валерий Иванович Инкижинов); 25 March 1895; Irkutsk, Irkutsk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	26 September 1973; Brunoy, Essonne, France,
Alma mater	Polytechnical Institute of Saint Petersburg
Occupations	Actor; director; teacher;
Years active	1928-1972

Valery Ivanovich Inkizhinov (Russian: Валерий Иванович Инкижинов^[a]; 25 March 1895 – 26 September 1973), known as Valéry Inkijinoff, was a Russian-French actor, director and acting teacher of Buryat descent. Born to a Buryat family in Irkutsk, he began his career in the Soviet Union, playing the lead role in Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1928 film Storm Over Asia. He immigrated to France in the 1930s, where his strong facial features made him a favorite villain for exotic adventure and crime films.

Early life

Inkijinoff was born in Irkutsk gubernia to a Christian Buryat father and an ethnic Russian mother. He studied at the Polytechnical Institute of Saint Petersburg, and for a time one of the resident actors of an imperial theater of the city. He studied acting under Vsevolod Meyerhold, where he helped develop the rehearsal technique of biomechanics.^[1] He joined Meyerhold's troupe in Moscow, where he also studied with Lev Kuleshov.

Career

At the beginning of his career in Russia, he appeared first as stuntman in a few movies and then as director and as actor. His major lead role during the Russian part of his career is Bair in Storm Over Asia by Vsevolod Pudovkin in 1928, a major Soviet propaganda film about a fictional British consolidation of Mongolia. He was also an actor in the troop of Vsevolod Meyerhold and was then appointed as director of the movie and theater school of Kiev.

In 1930, while in France on a European tour, he refused to return to the USSR. According to Boris Shumyatsky, after Stalin learned Inkijinoff had never returned in 1934, said: "Too bad that the man escaped. Now he, probably, is dying to come back but, alas, too late." He starred in 2 movies while living in the Soviet Union, and contrary to Stalin's assumption, Inkijinoff became immensely popular in Europe, arguably the most successful Soviet actor abroad, starring in a total of 44 French, British, German, and Italian films.

In France he frequently played the part of Asian villains. His most active period was in the thirties, when he appeared in Les Bateliers de la Volga [fr] and the G. W. Pabst film Le drame de Shanghai. He played for Fritz Lang in 1959, in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and its sequel Das indische Grabmal, in which he played the role of the high priest Yama. In 1965, Philippe de Broca cast him as Monsieur Goh, the wise but scary Chinese who guarantees to the Jean-Paul Belmondo character a certain death in Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine.

His last movie was with Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale, where he played the role of Indian chief Spitting Bull in Les pétroleuses.

Personal life and death

He was a great friend of Charles Dullin and Louis Jouvet, and had a long career in French theater, appearing for instance in Marie Galante by Jacques Deval.

He died at his home in Brunoy, Essonne, France, aged 78.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1917	Silnyi chelovek
1925	Pasplata		As director; lost film
1926	Rasplata		Lost film
1927	Vor		As director; lost film
1928	Storm Over Asia	Bair
1929	Kometa		As director; lost film
1930	Le capitaine jaune	Mongol Maitre d'Hotel
1933	The Battle	Hirata
	A Man's Neck	Radek
	Typhoon	Dr. Nitobe Tokeramo
1934	Amok	Amok / Maté
1934	Volga in Flames	Silatschoff
1935	Frisians in Peril	Kommissar Tschernoff
1936	The Last Four on Santa Cruz	Reeder Alexis Aika
1936	The Volga Boatman	Kiro
1937	The Wife of General Ling	General Ling / Mr. Wong
1938	Street Without Joy	Louis Stinner
	The Shanghai Drama	Lee Pang
	Rail Pirates	Wang
1948	The Renegade	Moktar
1949	Maya	Cachemire
1950	The Black Rose	Chinese Minister	Uncredited
1954	Mata Hari's Daughter	Naos
1955	Verrat an Deutschland	Hotsumi Ozaki
1956	Beloved Corinna	Chin
1956	Michel Strogoff	Feofar Khan
1958	The Doctor of Stalingrad	Lt. Colonel Worotilow
1959	The Tiger of Eschnapur	Yama
1959	The Indian Tomb	Yama
1960	Mistress of the World	Priest
1961	The Triumph of Michael Strogoff	Amektal
1961	Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan	Taoist High Priest
1962	Mon oncle du Texas	Big Nose
1964	The Secret of Dr. Mabuse	Dr. Krishna
1964	Nick Carter va tout casser	Li-Hang
1965	Up to His Ears	Mr. Goh
1966	Atout cœur à Tokyo pour OSS 117	Yekota
1967	The Blonde from Peking	Fang Ho Kung
1967	The Last Adventure	Kyobaski
1971	The Legend of Frenchie King	Spitting Bull

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	Il faut que je tue Monsieur Rumann	Mr. Rumann	Made-for-TV movie
1967-68	The Aeronauts	Mr. X / Le Képala	17 episodes
1971	Tang	Tang	13 episodes
1972	Le Fils du ciel	Minh	26 episodes