Wissenswertes

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1976

In 1963 Daneliya invited a young talent Gennady Shpalikov to collaborate on his first comedy film. By that time Shpalikov had already fallen out of favour for writing Ilyich's Gate, a movie which Nikita Khrushchev compared to an ideological diversion. To avoid censorship, Daneliya paid a visit to Vladimir Baskakov, one of the head officials at the State Committee for Cinematography, and assured him they had nothing tricky on their minds. After that the work became "easy, fast and fun".

His first feature Seryozha (also known as Splendid Days outside of the Soviet Union) was co-written and co-directed by his friend Igor Talankin. It was based on the popular novel of the same name by a prominent Soviet writer Vera Panova and featured Sergei Bondarchuk and his wife Irina Skobtseva in the leading roles. The movie was well-received, and the same year it was sent to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival where it was awarded with the Crystal Globe.

He was a Soviet and Georgian film director and screenwriter.

In 1980, Georgiy Daneliya survived a clinical death after being diagnosed with peritonitis and spent a year in hospital. In his final years, he rarely left his apartment. According to his wife Galina Yurkova-Daneliya, he had been suffering from a progressing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for many years.

In 1955 he graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and worked as an architect for the next two years.

He received the Russian President's Award for his contribution to cinema.

Similar to Leonid Gaidai and Eldar Ryazanov, Daneliya co-wrote screenplays to the majority of his movies (sometimes uncredited) and introduced many distinguishing trademarks in the process. After Thirty Three (1965) Yevgeny Leonov turned into his close friend and "a lucky charm". For 30 years Leonov appeared in every movie directed by Daneliya, including several Fitil episodes, either in the leading, supporting or episodic roles. He also played the dual role in Gentlemen of Fortune. Their last collaboration was Nastya (1993) released shortly before Leonov's death.

In 1956 the Higher Director's Courses were founded at the Mosfilm Studio, and Daneliya decided to enter them. His course was led by Mikhail Kalatozov, also a good friend of his mother. He graduated in 1959 and joined Mosfilm the same year.

He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1989 and a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1997.

Between 1957 and 1984 Daneliya lived in a civil union with an acclaimed Russian actress Lyubov Sergeyevna Sokolova who appeared in a number of his movies. They had a son Nikolai Sokolov-Daneliya (1959-1985), a film director and a poet who died at the age of 26 following an "accident".

Daneliya started his career by playing episodic roles in several movies directed by his uncle Mikheil Chiaureli.

Gentlemen of Fortune gathered 65 million viewers on the year of release and became the 12th most viewed Soviet film, while his movie "Afonya" (1975) was seen by 62.2 million people, reaching the 15th place.

Shortly before his death Daneliya left the family for Galina Ivanovna Yurkova (born 1944), a film director and his regular collaborator since then. He adopted her son Kirill (born 1968) and gave him his surname; Kirill became an artist.