Aleksandr Baluev

Russian character actor Aleksandr Baluyev has had a fruitful career playing hardened, quick-tempered characters in both Russian and English-language films, like "The Peacemaker" and "Deep Impact." Born in Moscow, Baluyev got his first experience with the film industry as an assistant at Soviet film studio Mosfilm. After training at the Moscow Art Academic Theatre and graduating in 1980, he acted with the Soviet Army Theatre for seven years. His first film role was in 1986's "Yegorka," about a team of soldiers who rescue a bear cub from a treacherous storm. Baluyev appeared in a number of Russian productions before he was cast as General Aleksandr Kodoroff in the 1997 action thriller "The Peacemaker." Starring George Clooney as an Army colonel attempting to recover stolen Russian nuclear weapons, aided by Nicole Kidman, the film marked Baluyev's big break into English-language films. Only the following year, Baluyev returned in another high-profile Hollywood film also directed by Mimi Leder, "Deep Impact." The film, about a large comet on a course to collide with Earth, starred Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood and Morgan Freeman and became a box office smash. Following his foray into Hollywood, Baluyev continued to star in Russian productions, appearing in movies like 2007's "The Banishment" and 2009's "Interceptor."