Feodor Chaliapin Jr.

Feodor Fedorovich Chaliapin Jr. was born October 6, 1905, in Moscow,
Russia. He was the youngest of six children. His father was the
world-famous Russian Opera basso
Feodor Chaliapin Sr.. His mother,
Iola Tornagi, was a prima-ballerina who quit the stage after her
marriage and became a caring mother of six children. Young Feodor grew
up in a trilingual family environment. He received an excellent private
education in Moscow, where he enjoyed the company of his father's
friends, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff
and Konstantin Korovin. After the
Russian revolution of 1917, he and his father fled from Russia to Paris, France.Chaliapin Jr. got out from under his father's shadow after moving from
Paris to Hollywood. There he began his film career, playing cameo roles
in silent films. He created a niche for himself as an impressive
character actor with excellent skills. His role as Kashkin, dying in
the arms of Gary Cooper in
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943),
was one of the finest moments in his early career. He played a variety
of Russian characters in films made during and after the Second World
War. Among the most memorable of his early works was his role as Fomich
in
Prisoner of the Volga (1959),
directed by Viktor Tourjansky, also a
Russian emigrant.After World War 2 Chaliapin moved to Rome, Italy. There he continued
his film career as a character actor, from the 1950s-1970s. He played a
broad array of very different characters, ranging from a comic gem as
Sen. Torsello in the political satire
The Eroticist (1972),
to a sinister Prof. Arnold in the horror film
Inferno (1980). He returned to Hollywood
and made a comeback in his later years. He really made his mark by
playing the blind, murderous monk "Jorge of Burgos" in
The Name of the Rose (1986). He is
probably best known for his role as the loony dog-walking grandfather
in Moonstruck (1987), living in a
world of his own and greeting the Moon with his funny cries "La Luna!
La Luna!" He also enjoyed a fine part as Leonides Cox, 'Robert De
Niro''s father in
Stanley & Iris (1990). His last
notable role was as Prof. Bartnev in
The Inner Circle (1991), based
on a true story about people suffering in the Soviet Russia under the
dictatorship of Iosif Stalin.In 1960, during "The Thaw" initiated by
Nikita Khrushchev, Chaliapin Jr. saved
his mother from the communist captivity and reunited with her in Rome,
Italy. At that time, Iola Tornagi was 87 and had been granted
permission to leave the Soviet Union. She left behind a magnificent art
collection and a museum-quality home, built in Moscow by her famous
husband. She could only bring her son an album of pictures of his
childhood and youth in pre-communist Russia.24 years later, Chaliapin Jr. took part in the returning of his famous
father's remains from Paris to Moscow in 1984, which was also a result
of reforms known as perestroika initiated by
Mikhail Gorbachev. Chaliapin was
allowed to visit Moscow in 1984 for the burial ceremony of his father,
Chialiapin Sr., at the Novodevichy Monastery Cemetery. There he briefly
rejoiced with his three sisters and other relatives around his father's
tomb.Through his entire life Feodor Feodorovich Chaliapin Jr. was devoted to
his mother, Iola Tornagi. She died in 1964, and was laid to rest in the
cemetery of Rome. He died of natural causes on September 17, 1992, at
his home in Rome, Italy, and was laid to rest next to his mother in the
cemetery of Rome.