Petr (Peter) Shelokhonov was born on August 15, 1929 in Belarus. His ancestors came from Lithuania, from Ukraine and from Poland. Peter was destined to practice veterinary medicine, like his father, but his fate was changed by war. He survived the Nazi occupation during WWII. The Nazis arrested Petr and he was held in a transitional camp with other men. One night he escaped with a group of men und ...
show all Petr (Peter) Shelokhonov was born on August 15, 1929 in Belarus. His ancestors came from Lithuania, from Ukraine and from Poland. Peter was destined to practice veterinary medicine, like his father, but his fate was changed by war. He survived the Nazi occupation during WWII. The Nazis arrested Petr and he was held in a transitional camp with other men. One night he escaped with a group of men under heavy fire from gun towers. Most of the fellow escapees were killed. Petr was severely wounded in his forehead but he survived and joined the partisans in the woods. There Petr Shelokhonov had his first acting experience. He was performing parodies of Hitler and the Nazis to his fellow partisans. His performances helped lift their spirits in a time when they were struggling to survive. This experience accentuated his humble, modest character. The scar on his forehead, the mark of war, made his acting career seem like an impossible dream; but Petr was determined. He made puppets and a screen, and worked in his own puppet theater from 1943-1945. In his show named "Peter and the Wolf" he managed to lead four puppets with four voices, and also played the accordion. He performed for bread and rare food packages from the American airlift, and he was very lucky to survive until the end of WWII. In 1945 he became a piano student at the Kiev Conservatory of Music, he also played the accordion on stage. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff has been his favorites as well as the music of Glenn Miller , Frank Sinatra and other stars from the Voice of America radio shows. He managed to survive through the roughest realities of life under Soviet communism; but when his free spirited humor angered the hard liners, many doors closed. After that, Petr's acting career was limited to Siberia. He moved to the Siberian city of Irkutsk and graduated from Irkutsk Drama School. He worked at the State Drama Theater in the city of Irkutsk in the 1950s and 1960s. Later he spent most of his professional acting career between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia. Petr Shelokhonov played leading and supporting roles in Russian and international films, and his filmography includes over 80 roles in film and television. His film partners were such actors as Kirill Lavrov, Yuri Solomin, Natalya Fateyeva, Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, and other notable actors. He also played over 100 roles on stage in Russian and International theater productions. He played the leading role (Sam) in Photo Finish, written and directed by Peter Ustinov. Petr Shelokhonov received the title of Honorable Actor of Russia (1979).
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