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Feodor Chaliapin Jr.

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Feodor Chaliapin Jr.
Фёдор Фёдорович Шаля́пин (Fëdor Fëdorovich Shalyápin)
Chaliapin in Moonstruck (1987)
Born(1905-10-06)6 October 1905
Died17 September 1992(1992-09-17) (aged 86)
OccupationFilm actor
Years active1921–1992

Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (Russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Шаля́пин; 6 October 1905 – 17 September 1992) was a Russian-born actor who appeared in many American and Italian films.

Life

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Chaliapin's parents, Feodor Chaliapin Sr. and Iola Tornaghi, 1890–1900

Chaliapin was the son and namesake of the great operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. He was born in Moscow, Russian Empire, and had a distinguished career in acting throughout Europe, mainly in Italy. His mother was Iola Tornaghi, a ballerina who abandoned a promising ballet career to care for Feodor and his five siblings. Along with part of the family emigrated to Paris in 1924, via Finland. The senior Chaliapin used this as his world base, like other émigrés and members of their families who often ended up living in the United States such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff and, for a while, Sergei Prokofiev.

Chaliapin grew up in a family that spoke three languages. He received an excellent education in Moscow and lived there until 1924, when he emigrated to Paris to be with his father, leaving behind his mother and the rest of the family. Chaliapin knew some of the greatest composers and conductors of the 20th century, particularly Rachmaninoff, a personal family friend and teacher of his father. Tired of living in his father's shadow in Paris, Chaliapin struck out on his own, moving to Hollywood to begin his film career — first in silent movies, in which his then-heavy accent could not be heard in the small bit parts he played. In his later years, Chaliapin achieved international stardom in more major roles.

Chaliapin is perhaps most remembered by modern audiences for the film The Name of the Rose (1986), in which he played the venerable blind abbot, Jorge de Burgos. He had a major role in Inferno (1980). One of his most memorable roles was Grandpa Castorini in Moonstruck (1987), starring Cher. The director, Norman Jewison, sought the advice of his friend Sean Connery in deciding whether to hire him for the role — the two having starred together in The Name of the Rose — who is reputed to have said: "He canna see, he canna hear — but he will steal every scene in the film he's in, he's brilliant". [1] Chaliapin also played the role of Leonides Cox, Robert De Niro's father in Stanley & Iris (1990). His last notable film role was as Professor Bartnev in The Inner Circle (1991), a true story about Soviet Russia under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.

In one of his briefest roles, Chaliapin dies in the arms of Gary Cooper in the opening scenes of For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), based on Ernest Hemingway's 1940 novel.

Of Chaliapin's early film roles, one of the most memorable was in Victor Tourjansky's Prisoner of the Volga (1959). Much of his filmography lies in Italian films, including an appearance as Julius Caesar in Federico Fellini's film Roma.

In 1960, for the first time in many years, he encountered the Mother that had migrated to him in Rome. Due to all the reasons and the damage to her ex-husband's health, Iola Tornaghi managed to bring only Chaliapin's photo albums from Moscow. In 1984, Chaliapin Jr. achieved the reburial of his father, who had been resting in Paris all this time, at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.


In 1992, Chaliapin died of natural causes after an illness in Rome, where he had lived since World War II. He was survived by his twin sister, Tatiana Chaliapin Chernoff, and several nieces and nephews.

He is buried at the Cimitero Flaminio, Provincia di Roma, in Lazio, Italy.

Selected filmography

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  1. ^ Moonstruck (2020) blu-ray video extras: Moonstruck: At the heart of an Italian family (2006)