Profile of Alexander Godunov on Famous Like Me

Alexander Borisovich Godunov (Russian: Александр Борисович Годунов, 29 November 1949, Sakhalin, USSR — 18 May 1995, New York City) was a Russian ballet dancer and actor, whose defection caused a diplomatic incident between the USA and the USSR. He joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 and rose to become premier dancer before defecting to the US in 1979. After briefly dancing with the American Ballet Theatre, he gave up ballet and turned to film acting, playing roles that included an Amish farmer in Witness in 1985; Karl, a terrorist psychopath, in Die Hard; Max, the husband, in The Money Pit; and Vronsky in Anna Karenina in 1987. He died probably of alcoholism with complications from hepatitis at the age of 45.

Escape from USSR

On August 23, 1979, while on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet in New York, 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. US President Jimmy Carter and Russian 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", 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. He travelled 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.

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

Filmography

• "The Zone" (1996) as Lothar Krasna;
• "North" (1994) as Amish Dad;
• "Waxwork II: Lost in Time" (1992) as Scarabis;
• "The Runestone" (1990) as Sigvaldson, The Clockmaker;
• "Die Hard (1988);
• "The Money Pit" (1986) as Max Beissart, the Maestro;
• "Witness" (1985) as Daniel Hochleitner;
• "31 iyunya" ("June 31", 1978) as himself;
• "Anna Karenina" (1974) as Vronsky.

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