Ivan Vasylyovych Mykolaichuk (15 June 1941 – 3 August 1987) was a Ukrainian actor, producer, and screen writer. He is best known for playing the Hutsul Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964), based on Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky's book of the same name. He received the Komsomol prize of Ukraine in 1967, and the title of Meritorious Artist of the Ukrainian SSR in 1968. He posthumously received the Shevchenko National Prize.

Biography

Ivan Vasylovych Mykolaichuk was born in a village of Chortoryia (Kitsman Raion) in Western Ukraine during World War II in a family of peasants. Mykolaichuk graduated from a high school of the neighboring village of Brusnytsia (Kitsman Raion). In 1957, he finished the Chernivtsi Music College and in 1961 he graduated from the theater-studio of the Chernivtsi Music-Drama Theater of Kobylyanska. On 29 August 1962, Mykolaichuk married an actress of the theater (later the People's Artist of Ukraine) Maria Karpiuk. In 1963–1965 he studied in the Karpenko-Karyi Memorial Kyiv Institute of Theatrical Arts (instructed by Viktor Ivchenko). During those years, Ivan debuted in the Leonid Osyka's movie Dvoye (The two). His films were often controversial and suppressed by the Soviet authorities; sometimes his films were banned from being screened by the KGB. Due to incidents with the Parajanov's film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Mykolaichuk was banned from film industry for some five years by the party authorities being recognized as too nationalistic and a person of hostile ideology. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, which received the Gold Prize of the 7th Moscow International Film Festival in 1971, was perceived almost as a hostile attack by nationalistic forces. In 1979 with the help of Vladimir Ivashko, who worked as the secretary of ideological work in the Kharkiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Mykolaichuk was given permission to direct the film Babylon XX, his directorial debut. Mykolaichuk died in August 1987 at the age of 46. His house in Chortoryia has since been turned into a museum. He left a lasting legacy on Ukrainian film. Many consider him to be the greatest actor in the history of Ukrainian film. He also inspired other Ukrainian artists, actors, singers and writers who were searching for their Ukrainian identity in the Soviet era.

Filmography

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Accolades