Cast
- Vladimir Ivashov as Private Alyosha Skvortsov
- Zhanna Prokhorenko as Shura
- Antonina Maksimova as the mother
- Nikolai Kryuchkov as the general
- Yevgeni Urbansky as Vasya
- Elza Lezhdey as Vasya's wife
- Aleksandr Kuznetsov as Gavrilkin
- Yevgeni Teterin as The lieutenant
- V. Markova as Liza (Pavlov's wife)
- Marina Kremnyova as Zoya (neighbor girl)
- Vladimir Pokrovsky as Pavlov's invalid father
- Georgi Yumatov as Sergeant giving bars of soap
- Gennadi Yukhtin as Private Seryozha Pavlov
- Valentina Telegina as Old woman truck driver
- Lev Borisov as Joking soldier on train
The two lead actors, Ivashov and Prokhorenko, were both only nineteen years old and did not have much acting experience. Grigori Chukhrai commented of his casting choice:
We took a big risk. It was risky to give the main roles to quite inexperienced actors. Not many would have done so in those times, but we ventured and did not regret afterwards. Volodya and Zhanna gave the most precious colouring to the film, that is, the spontaneity and charm of youth.
Both would go on to long careers in cinema.
Read more about this topic: Ballad Of A Soldier
Famous quotes containing the word cast:
“Has he all that the world loves and admires and covets?—he must cast behind him their admiration, and afflict them by faithfulness to his truth, and become a byword and a hissing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“For such despite they cast on female wits:
If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,
They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.”
—Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612–1672)
““The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life!” And yet can we cast out of our spirits all the good or evil poured into them by so many learned generations? Ignorance cannot be learned.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)