Pavel Luspekayev

Pavel Borisovich Luspekayev was a Soviet actor who is best known for his role of Vereschagin in the classic Russian movie White Sun of the Desert. Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation .

Pavel Luspekayev was born in Luhansk, Ukrainian SSR in 1927. His father Bogdasar Luspekyan was an Armenian butcher from a village near NakhichevanonDon . His mother Seraphima Kovaleva came from Don Cossacks. He waswhen the Great Patriotic War started in 1941. Young Pavel joined the Soviet partisans unit where he was later wounded. In 1946, after the end of the war, Luspekayev became student in the Moscows Schepkin theatre school. After finishing the school in 1950 he performed in Tbilisis Griboedov Russian Drama Theatre, in 1956 in Kievs Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theater of Russian Drama. In 1959 he joined Leningrads Bolshoi Drama Theatre where he performed in plays under director Georgy Tovstonogov. In 1965 Luspekayev was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist of RSFSR.

Source: Wikipedia