
Valéry Inkijinoff
Born
March 25, 1895
Died
September 26, 1973 (78 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Bokhan, Irkutsk governorate, Russian Empire
Valéry Inkijinoff (Russian: Валерьян (Валерий) Иванович Инкижинов; 25 March 1895 – 26 September 1973) was a French actor of Russian-Buryat origin. His strong facial features made him a favourite villain of French cinema for exotic adventure films and crime movies.
Inkijinoff was born to a Christian Buryat father and a Russian mother in Irkutsk gubernia.
He studied at the Polytechnical Institute of Saint Petersburg and was for a time one of the resident actors of an imperial theater of this city. At the beginning of his career in Russia, he appeared first as stuntman in a few movies and then as director and as actor. His major lead role during the Russian part of his career is The Son in Storm Over Asia by Vsevolod Pudovkin in 1928, a major Soviet propaganda film about a fictional British consolidation of Mongolia.
He was also an actor in the troop of Vsevolod Meyerhold and was then appointed as director of the movie and theater school of Kiev in Ukraine.
In 1930, while in France on a European tour, he refused to return to the USSR. According to Boris Shumyatsky, after Stalin learned Inkijinoff had never returned in 1934, said: "Too bad that the man escaped. Now he, probably, is dying to come back but, alas, too late." He starred in 2 movies while living in the Soviet Union, and contrary to Stalin's assumption, Inkijinoff became immensely popular in Europe, arguably the most successful Soviet actor abroad, starring in a total of 44 French, British, German, and Italian films.
In France he frequently played the part of Asian villains. His most active period was in the thirties, when he appeared in Les Bateliers de la Volga and the G. W. Pabst film Le drame de Shanghai. He played for Fritz Lang in 1959, in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and its sequel Das indische Grabmal, in which he played the role of the high priest Yama. In 1965, Philippe de Broca cast him as Monsieur Goh, the wise but scary Chinese who guarantees to the Jean-Paul Belmondo character a certain death in Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine.
His last movie was with Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale, where he played the role of Indian chief Spitting Bull in Les pétroleuses.
He was a great friend of Charles Dullin and Louis Jouvet, and had a long career in French theater, appearing for instance in Marie Galante by Jacques Deval.
He died at his home in Brunoy, Essonne, France, aged 78.
Source: Article "Valéry Inkijinoff" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Known For

Buryat in European Cinema
Himself (archive footage)
2024

The Legend of Frenchie King
Spitting Bull
1971

The Biggest Bundle of Them All
Mafia Guy in Sauna (uncredited)
1968

The Blonde from Peking
Fang Ho Kung
1967

The Last Adventure
Kyobaski, producer
1967

O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo
Yekota
1966

Up to His Ears
Mr. Goh
1965

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse
Dr. Krishna
1964

License to Kill
Li-Hang
1964

The Rebel Gladiators
Gladiator
1962

My Uncle from Texas
The old Indian
1962

The Triumph of Michael Strogoff
Yusuf Ben Amektal
1961

Man Wants to Live
1961

Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World
High Priest
1961

Journey to the Lost City
Yama, High Priest
1960

Mistress of the World - Part II
Priester
1960

The Indian Tomb
Yama
1959

The Tiger of Eschnapur
Yama
1959

The Doctor of Stalingrad
1958

Corinna Darling
Chin
1956

Michael Strogoff
Feofar Khan
1956

Mata Hari's Daughter
Naos
1954

Maya
Cachemire
1949

La Renégate
Moktar
1948

The Shanghai Drama
Lee Pang
1938

Street Without Joy
Louis Stinner
1938

Rail Pirates
Wang
1938
The Wife of General Ling
General Ling
1937

Friesennot
Kommissar Tschernoff
1935

Les Bateliers de la Volga
1935
Police File 909
Dr. Nitobe Tokeramo
1934

The Battle
Hirata
1934

Amok
Maté / Amok-afflicted Native
1934

Volga in Flames
Silatschoff
1934
Typhoon
Doctor Nitobe Tokeramo
1933

A Man's Neck
Radek
1933
The Yellow Captain
1930

Storm Over Asia
Bair
1928