The Most Famous
ACTORS from Lithuania
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Lithuanian Actors of all time. This list of famous Lithuanian Actors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Lithuanian Actors.
1. Laurence Harvey (1928 - 1973)
With an HPI of 55.02, Laurence Harvey is the most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages on wikipedia.
Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 1928 – 25 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born actor. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to South Africa at an early age, before later settling in the United Kingdom after World War II. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century, Harvey appeared in stage, film and television productions primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States. Harvey was known for his clipped, refined accent and cool, debonair screen persona. His performance in Room at the Top (1959) resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. That success was followed by the roles of William Barret Travis in The Alamo and Weston Liggett in Butterfield 8, both films released in the autumn of 1960. He also appeared as the brainwashed Sergeant Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). He made his directorial debut with The Ceremony (1963), and continued acting into the 1970s until his early death in 1973 of cancer.
2. Donatas Banionis (1924 - 2014)
With an HPI of 55.02, Donatas Banionis is the 2nd most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.
Donatas Banionis (28 April 1924 – 4 September 2014) was a Soviet and Lithuanian stage and film actor and theatre director. He has more than 80 credited roles in cinema and is best known for his performance in the lead role of Tarkovsky's Solaris as Kris Kelvin. He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. Banionis began his career with some films in Lithuanian, but he would later play mainly in Russian language films (although his voice was dubbed by Russian actors). He has also worked outside the USSR like in the title role Francisco Goya of the USSR-GDR coproduction Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment (1971), directed by Konrad Wolf and in the title role as Ludwig van Beethoven in the 1976 DEFA-production Beethoven - Tage aus einem Leben. Aside from films, he was a popular stage actor in Panevėžys, where he acted since the age of 17, and which was frequented by Donatas' fans from all over the former Soviet Union. His first teacher was Juozas Miltinis. He acted in Vilnius, in the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. One of the best-known works of the actor was the role of Kris Kelvin in the film Solaris (1972) of Andrei Tarkovsky. Vladimir Putin once stated that Banionis' part in the 1968 Soviet spy film Dead Season was the reason why he joined the KGB.
3. Petr Shelokhonov (1929 - 1999)
With an HPI of 53.58, Petr Shelokhonov is the 3rd most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.
Petr Illarionovich Shelokhonov, (Polish: Piotr Szełochonow, Russian: Пётр Илларио́нович Шелохо́нов, Belarusian: Пятро Ларывонавіч Шэлахонаў, Ukrainian: Петро Іларіонович Шелохонов; in English also spelled 'Peter' or 'Pyotr' or 'Petr'; 15 August 1929 – 15 September 1999) was a Russian actor, director, filmmaker and socialite, designated Honorable Actor of Russia (1979). A strong proponent of making High culture accessible to all people, he organized social events for all people in artistic communities of St. Petersburg and Moscow using his position as member of the Union of Actors.
4. Jacques Sernas (1925 - 2015)
With an HPI of 51.66, Jacques Sernas is the 4th most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Jokūbas Bernardas Šernas (30 July 1925 – 3 July 2015), commonly known as Jacques Sernas and sometimes credited as Jack Sernas, was a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career.
5. Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė (b. 1963)
With an HPI of 50.91, Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė is the 5th most famous Lithuanian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 29 different languages.
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė (born 20 January 1963) is а Lithuanian actress and television presenter. Known for both her screen and stage performances, she has gained recognition for featuring in films such as Burnt by the Sun (1994) and Katya Ismailova (1994), which won her the Nika Award for Best Actress. Dapkūnaitė was also credited in Mission: Impossible (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Emily Young's debut Kiss of Life (2003), and Okkupert (2015–2019). Dapkūnaitė performed in theaters in Lithuania, the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia, including Steppenwolf Theatre, Shaftesbury Theatre, The Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre, Theatre of Nations, and more. She has a long-lasting professional partnership with John Malkovich, they worked together on numerous theatrical productions.
6. Regimantas Adomaitis (1937 - 2022)
With an HPI of 48.73, Regimantas Adomaitis is the 6th most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Regimantas Adomaitis (31 January 1937 – 20 June 2022) was a Lithuanian film and stage actor. He was also active in Russia and Germany.
7. Cornell Borchers (1925 - 2014)
With an HPI of 48.39, Cornell Borchers is the 7th most famous Lithuanian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.
Cornell Borchers (16 March 1925 – 12 May 2014) was a Lithuanian-German actress and singer, active in the late 1940s and 1950s. She is best remembered for her roles opposite Montgomery Clift in The Big Lift (1950) and Errol Flynn and Nat King Cole in Istanbul (1957). She was said to resemble Ingrid Bergman in mid-1950s reviews.
8. Vasily Kachalov (1875 - 1948)
With an HPI of 46.54, Vasily Kachalov is the 8th most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Vasily Ivanovich Kachalov (Russian: Васи́лий Ива́нович Кача́лов; 11 February [O.S. 30 January] 1875 – 30 September 1948), was one of Russia's most renowned actors. He worked closely and often with Konstantin Stanislavski. He led the so-called Kachalov Group within the Moscow Art Theatre. It was Kachalov who played Hamlet in the Symbolist production of 1911. His father was Ivan Shverubovich, a Belarusian Orthodox priest from Vilna. His schoolmates at Vilna Gymnasium included revolutionary Felix Dzerzhinsky and composer Konstantinas Galkauskas. In 1896, he left the law department of Saint Petersburg University in order to pursue an acting career. After four years of touring the Russian provinces and a brief stint at the Suvorin Theatre, Kachalov made his debut at the Moscow Art Theatre as Tsar Berendey in The Snow Maiden (spring 1900). The snow maiden was played by Stanislavski's wife, Maria Lilina, who fell in love with Kachalov; she described their affair as "a touch of private happiness". Another of his lovers was Alisa Koonen. He met his wife, actress Nina Litovtseva, when they were acting in the Kazan Drama Theatre, one of Russia's oldest. Kachalov was greatly admired for his "magnetic" voice. He played Baron Tuzenbach after Vsevolod Meyerhold's departure from the theatre. In the original 1904 production of The Cherry Orchard he appeared as Trofimov. He starred in Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko's production of Ivanov later that year. All in all, he took more than 50 roles in Stanislavski's company. After the Russian Revolution, the Kachalov Group went touring Central Europe and did not return until the summer of 1921, under pressure from the theatre's founders. Kachalov was named one of the first People's Artists of the USSR after the title was instituted in 1936 and received a Stalin Prize in 1943. He was also the recipient of the two Orders of Lenin. The Kazan State Theatre was given his name in 1948. The Russian director and puppeteer, Sergey Obraztsov, described seeing Kachalov on stage: “That matchless voice of his sounded different each time. Different too was that amazing process of creating a phrase, and every visual image evoked by the word. One had the impression that Kachalov was not merely speaking but thinking aloud, and that the words one heard were only a part of what he was seeing with his inner eye. For that reason people did not merely listen to Kachalov, they watched what he was talking about.”
9. Juozas Budraitis (b. 1940)
With an HPI of 46.45, Juozas Budraitis is the 9th most famous Lithuanian Actor. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Juozas Budraitis (born 6 October 1940) is a Lithuanian actor. He has appeared in more than 60 films and television shows since 1966. He starred in the Soviet film Wounded Game, which was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. Budraitis also played a minor role in the finale of the period drama miniseries The Queen's Gambit.
10. Agnia Ditkovskyte (b. 1988)
With an HPI of 29.82, Agnia Ditkovskyte is the 10th most famous Lithuanian Actor. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Agnia (Agne) Olegovna Ditkovskyte (Lithuanian: Agnija (Agnė) Ditkovskytė), after marriage — Chadova, born 11 May 1988, Vilnius, Lithuania) is a Russian actress of a Lithuanian origin.
People
Pantheon has 10 people classified as Lithuanian actors born between 1875 and 1988. Of these 10, 3 (30.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Lithuanian actors include Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė, Juozas Budraitis, and Agnia Ditkovskyte. The most famous deceased Lithuanian actors include Laurence Harvey, Donatas Banionis, and Petr Shelokhonov. As of April 2024, 3 new Lithuanian actors have been added to Pantheon including Vasily Kachalov, Juozas Budraitis, and Agnia Ditkovskyte.
Living Lithuanian Actors
Go to all Rankings
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
1963 - Present
HPI: 50.91
Juozas Budraitis
1940 - Present
HPI: 46.45
Agnia Ditkovskyte
1988 - Present
HPI: 29.82
Deceased Lithuanian Actors
Go to all RankingsLaurence Harvey
1928 - 1973
HPI: 55.02
Donatas Banionis
1924 - 2014
HPI: 55.02
Petr Shelokhonov
1929 - 1999
HPI: 53.58
Jacques Sernas
1925 - 2015
HPI: 51.66
Regimantas Adomaitis
1937 - 2022
HPI: 48.73
Cornell Borchers
1925 - 2014
HPI: 48.39
Vasily Kachalov
1875 - 1948
HPI: 46.54
Newly Added Lithuanian Actors (2024)
Go to all RankingsVasily Kachalov
1875 - 1948
HPI: 46.54
Juozas Budraitis
1940 - Present
HPI: 46.45
Agnia Ditkovskyte
1988 - Present
HPI: 29.82
Overlapping Lives
Which Actors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 7 most globally memorable Actors since 1700.
