Career
In 1958 he was cast in the film Veter (Russian: Ветер). In 1959 he graduated from the GITIS theatre acting school. He then worked in the Mayakovsky Theater in Moscow. In 1959 he starred in Everything Begins with Hitting the Road.
In 1961 Aleksandr Demyanenko moved to Leningrad and became staff actor at Lenfilm studio. There he starred in the film Grown-Up Children. He then went on to play in A Night Before Christmas, Peace to Him Who Enter and was cast for the title role in Dima Gorin's Career. In 1962 he starred in A Trip Without a Load and Bang the Drum. In 1963 he starred in Cheka Employee, The First Trolleybus and Kain XVIII. In 1964 he starred in The Returned Music and State Offender.
In 1965 he was cast for the role of Shurik in a classic Soviet comedy Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures. This role earned Demyanenko the image of nerdy student Shurik ("Shurik" being a diminutive form of the name Aleksandr). In 1966 he starred in the semi-sequel to the film The Prisoner of Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures. In 1967, he starred in the film War under the Roofs and in 1968 in The Dead Season. In 1969 he starred in Tomorrow, April 3 and The Ugryum River. In 1971 he starred in Dauria. In 1972 he starred in Hello and Goodbye and The Singing Teacher. Demyanenko tried to avoid being typecast as "Shurik" and was not able to get major roles.
In 1973 he once again reunited with Leonid Gaidai to star in the film Ivan Vasilyevich: Back to the Future where he plays a scientist (also by the name of "Shurik") who invents a time machine. Demyanenko was unable to gain popularity for other roles as he was typecast as a scientist due to his tremendous popularity as the nerdy, crime-fighting student Shurik. He frequently voiced foreign films to earn some extra money.
Aleksandr Demyanenko suffered from alcoholism. He lived in poverty following the collapse of the socialized welfare system of the Soviet Union. He appeared in the TV Show/movie Old Songs of the Main Things 2 in 1997 playing the aged Shurik. He had a brief role in the TV series Strawberry played his other famous role of the nerdy professor in Old Songs of the Main Things 3 in 1998. In 1999 Aleksandr Demyanenko died from a heart attack. Some analysts say this played a part in the success of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the December 1999 elections as the lack of a social welfare system was frequently blamed for his death.
Read more about this topic: Aleksandr Demyanenko
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