Background
Banionis, Donatas was born on April 28, 1924.
Banionis, Donatas was born on April 28, 1924.
Studied under the director Miltinis, a pupil of Charles Dullen. Studied under the director Miltinis, a pupil of Charles Dullen.
He is best known for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky"s Solaris as Kris Kelvin. Banionis began his career with some films in Lithuanian, but he would later play mainly in Russian language films. He has also worked outside the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics like in the title role Francisco Goya of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics-German Democratic Republic coproduction Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971), directed by Konrad Wolf and in the title role as Ludwig van Beethoven in the 1976 DEFA-production Beethoven - Tage aus einem Leben.
Aside from films, he was a popular stage actor in Panevėžys, where he acted since the age of 17, and which was frequented by Donatas" fans from all over the former Soviet Union.
He acted in Vilnius, in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. Vladimir Putin once stated that Banionis was the reason why he joined the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security). Banionis died on 4 September 2014 from a stroke.
He was 90 years old.