Background
Mykolaichuk was born in a village of Chortoryia (Kitsman Raion) in Western Ukraine during the World World War II in a family of peasants.
Mykolaichuk was born in a village of Chortoryia (Kitsman Raion) in Western Ukraine during the World World War II in a family of peasants.
Ivan graduated from a high school of the neighboring village of Brusnytsia (Kitsman Raion). In 1957 he finished the Chernivtsi Music College and in 1961 he graduated from the theater-studio of the Chernivtsi Music-Drama Theater of Kobylyanska.
He is best known for playing the Hutsul Ivan in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Тіні забутих предків) (1964), based on Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky"s book of the same name. He posthumously received the Taras Shevchenko prize. On August 29, 1962 Ivan married an actress of the theater (later the People"s Artist of Ukraine) Maria Karpiuk.
In 1963-1965 he studied in the Karpenko-Karyi Memorial Kyiv Institute of Theatrical Arts (instructor - Viktor Ivchenko).
During those years Ivan debuted in the Leonid Osyka"s movie Dvoye (The two). His films were often controversial and suppressed by the Soviet authorities.
Sometimes his films were banned from being screened by the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security). Due to incidents with the Parajanov"s film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Mykolaichuk was banned from film industry for some five years by the party authorities being recognized as too nationalistic and a person of hostile ideology. In 1979 with the help of Volodymyr Ivashko who worked as the secretary of ideological work in the Kharkiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Mykolaichuk was given permission to participate in the movie Babylon 20th (Вавилон ХХ).
Mykolaichuk died in August 1987 at the age of 46.
His house in Chortoryia, Kitsman Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, has since been turned into a museum. He left a lasting legacy on Ukrainian film. Many consider him to be the greatest actor in the history of Ukrainian Cinematography.
He also inspired other Ukrainian artists, actors, singers and writers who were searching for their Ukrainian identity in the Soviet era.
Lenin Communist Youth League Prize of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1967) Distinguished Artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1968) Shevchenko State Prize of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1988 posthumously) for performance of roles of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Paliychuk, Davyd Motuzka, Hryhoriy Hromov, Petro Dzvonar, Fabian, and Hryhoriy Korchak in films "Dream", "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", "Weed", "Commissars", "White Bird with Black Mark", "Babylon-XX", and "Such late, such warm Autumn".
