Alexander Godunov

Infobox Person
name = Alexander Borisovich Godunov
birth_date = birth date|1949|11|28
birth_place = Sakhalin, USSR
death_date = death date and age|1995|5|18|1949|11|28
death_place = West Hollywood, California, United States
resting_place_coordinates =
nationality = Russian
occupation = Ballet Dancer
Actor

Alexander Borisovich Godunov (Russian: _ru. Александр Борисович Годунов, November 28 1949 — May 18 1995) was a Russian ballet dancer and actor, whose defection caused a diplomatic incident between the USA and the USSR.

Godunov was born in Sakhalin, USSR. He joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 and rose to become premier dancer before defecting to the USA in 1979. After briefly dancing with the American Ballet Theatre, he gave up ballet and turned to film acting. Godunov's roles were varied, including a good-natured Amish farmer in "Witness", a violent German terrorist in "Die Hard", a comically narcissistic symphony conductor (referred to as "the maestro") in "The Money Pit", and Vronsky in "Anna Karenina" in 1974. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1987.

He died in West Hollywood, California, of alcoholism and complications of hepatitis at the age of 45.

Defection from USSR

On August 23, 1979, while on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in New York City, Godunov contacted authorities and asked for political asylum. After discovering his absence, the KGB responded by putting his wife, Lyudmila Vlasova, a soloist with the company, on a plane to Moscow, but the flight was stopped before take-off while the State Department tried to determine whether she was leaving voluntarily.

Then U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev became involved in the incident. Finally, after three days, the plane was allowed to take off, returning Vlasova to her family in Russia. Godunov spent a year trying to get her back, but to no avail. The two of them, known as the "Romeo and Juliet of the cold war",who were divorced in 1982.

Godunov joined the American Ballet Theater and danced as a principal until 1982 when he had a falling-out with his long-time friend and director of the company Mikhail Baryshnikov. The official reason for his release from the company was that there would not be sufficient roles for him after a change in the repertory.He traveled briefly with his own troupe, turned to acting in Hollywood, and became involved in a long-standing romance with actress Jacqueline Bisset, which ended in 1988.

Death

On May 18, 1995 his friends became concerned when he had been uncharacteristically quiet with his phone calls. Sending a nurse to his home in the Shoreham Towers, West Hollywood, Godunov was found dead at the age of forty-five of alcohol abuse with complications from hepatitis. It was not immediately clear how long he had been dead and a friend stated she had not heard from him since May 8.cite web| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2D8163FF93AA25756C0A963958260| title= Alexander Godunov, Dancer And Film Actor, Dies at 45| author=Dunning, Jennifer| publisher= New York Times| date=1995-05-19|accessdate=2008-02-09] In a statement issued shortly after his death, Godunov's publicist, Evelyn Shriver said "He did not have AIDS, or commit suicide ... This was a very happy time of his life ... "

His ashes were released into the Pacific Ocean; his memorial at Gates Mortuary in Los Angeles is engraved with the epitaph "His future remained in the past."

Filmography

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0324231|name=Alexander Godunov
* [http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/g/godunov/alexander_godunov.htm Find a Death obituary for Alexander Godunov]