Sergei Yursky was a Soviet/Russian stage and film actor, theatre director and screenwriter.

His most notable role in the cinema is Ostap Bender in The Little Golden Calf.

Yursky Sergey was born in Leningrad 16 March 1935 in the family of Yuri Sergeyevich Yursky. He studied at the Faculty of Law of Zhdanov Leningrad State University.

In 1959 he graduated from Ostrovsky Leningrad Theatrical Institute, L. F. Makarev's course.

From 1957 till 1979 he was one of the leading actors of Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theater in Leningrad. The leading part in Wit Works Woe (1962) by Alexander Griboedov made him one of the most significant actors of his generation. His director's debut "Moliere" by Mikhail Bulgakov in 1977 was highly acclaimed, but was not accepted by Georgy Tovstonogov, and led to Yursky's departure from the theatre

Since 1979 - an actor and director of Mossovet Theater in Moscow. Also worked as an actor and director in Moscow Art Theatre, as well as in Belgium, France and Japan.

Yursky performs one-man recitals of poetry and prose, touring widely with them in USSR, then Russia and since the 1990s many countries with Russian-speaking population.

Selected filmography

• 1961 — Nowhere Man as Eccentric
• 1965 — Time, Forward! as Margulies
• 1966 — The Republic of ShKID as Vicknicksor
• 1968 — The Little Golden Calf as Ostap Bender
• 1979 — The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed as Gruzdev
• 1979 — Little Tragedies as Improviser
• 1983 — Look for a Woman as notary Rochet
• 1984 — Love and Pigeons as Uncle Mitya
• 1987 — The End of Eternity as Computer Hobbe Finge
• 2007 — Korolev as Konstantin Tsiolkovskii

Awards

• 1968 — Honoured Artist of the RSFSR
• 1987 — People's Artist of the RSFSR
• 1991 — Kinotavr Grand Prize in feature films
• 2000 — Pushkin Medal
• 2005 — Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" of IV degree
• 2010 — Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" of III degree