Adomaitis, Regimantas

Biography:

Regimantas Adomaitis was born in Schaulen (now Šiauliai), Lithuania, on January 31, 1937. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Vilnius University, he studied acting at the Lithuanian Conservatory (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater) in Vilnius. He then performed at the Dramatic Theater in Kaunas from 1962 to 1968; much later, in the 1990s, he returned to the stage, taking a break from intensive film work.

 

In 1963, Adomaitis had his film debut in the contemporary drama Vienos dienso kronika, about a prominent Soviet scientist and the government’s repression of his work. This was also the first film in which he shared the screen with the popular Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis (Solaris, Goya). The two played together in many productions, including the post-WWII story Niekas nenorejo mirti and the literary adaption Korol Lir (official selection, 1973 Chicago International Film Festival).

 

Critics have praised Adomaitis for his outstanding acting talent and conveyance of emotions. By the beginning of the 1980s, he had become one of Lithuania’s most famous actors and was known throughout the Soviet Union. His most popular performances were in Grigoriy Chukhray’s co-production La vita è bella—in which he shared the screen with Italian star Ornella Muti—and Jonas Vaikus’comedy Medaus menuo Amerikoje. Adomaitis also played alongside the famous Russian actor Anatoliy Solonitsyn (Andrei Rublev) in the romance Iz zhizni otdykhayushchikh. In 2002, he was invited to perform the role of Doctor Salvator in the TV mini-series Chelovek amfibiya, a remake of the 1962 Soviet box-office hit based on Aleksandr Beliaev’s sci-fi novel. In recent years, he has mainly worked in television.

 

Over the course of his career, Adomaitis performed in several foreign film productions. He was cast by the East German DEFA Studio for important leading roles. In Günter Reisch’s Wolz – Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten, he played the soldier Ignaz Wolz, who returns from WWI with an immeasurable hatred of capitalist war profiteers and decides to start his own revolution. A few years later, Reisch cast him as an underground activist in love with a comrade in Die Verlobte. In the interim, DEFA director Kurtz Maetzig invited him to play the lead in the literary adaptation Mann gegen Mann, a post-WWII story about two returning soldiers in love with the same woman. In 2008, Adomaitis performed in the Norwegian feature film Iskyzz, a poetic love story between a young Norwegian woman and a Russian POW during WWII.

 

In 1988, Adomaitis with other prominent people founded the Sąjūdis Reform Movement, which eventually led to Lithuania’s declaration of independence on March 11, 1990. He was awarded the Golden Crane Lithuanian Film Prize in 2011 for his outstanding contribution to Lithuanian film over the years, Adomaitis entrusted his personal archive to drama expert Daiva Šabasevičienė, who wrote and published his biography, Smėlio Pilys (Sand Castle) in time for his 80th birthday in 2017.

Filmography:

2013 Berega moey mechty (Shores of My Dreams, TV series)
2011 I cerchi nell’acqua (The Circles in the Water, TV series)
2008 Iskyzz (Ice Kiss)
2004 Moskovskaya saga (The Moscow Legend, TV series)
2002 Chelovek amfibiya (Amphibian Man, TV mini-series)
1997 Der Doppelgänger (The Double, TV)
1995 Mona M. (TV series)
1995 Volchya krov (Wolf’s Blood)
1994 Ein Wodka zuviel (One Vodka Too Many, TV)
1993 Hin Astvatzner (Ancient Gods)
1989 Un dieu rebell (Hard to Be a God)
1986 Karusel na bazarnoy ploshchadi (Carousel on the Market Place)
1981 Iz zhizni otdykhayushchikh (Scenes from Life of People on Leave)
1981 Medaus menuo Amerikoje (Honeymoon in America)
1980 Die Verlobte (The Fiancée)
1979 La vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful)
1975 Mann gegen Mann (Man against Man)
1973 Wolz – Leben und Verklärung eines deutschen Anarchisten (Wolz – Life and Illusion of a German Anarchist, C)
1973 Eto sladkoe slovo – svoboda! (That Sweet Word: Liberty!
1973 Velnio nuotaka (Devil’s Bride)
1971 Koril Lir (King Lear)
1968 Suaugusiu zmoniu zaidimai (Adult Games)
1966 Niekas nenorejo mirti (Nobody Wanted to Die)
1966 Vostochny koridor (Eastern Corridor)
1963 Vienos Dienso kronika (Chronicle of a Year)

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