Gregory Gladiy

Gregory Hlady was born December 4, 1954 in the city of Khorostkova, part of the Ternopol region of Ukraine. He studied at the Karpenko-Kary Kiev Theater Institute, worked in the Shevchenko Theater in Kharkov, and was one of the first actors in the Kiev Molodezhny (Youth) Theater (now Molodoi Theater). Theater lovers recall the scandal surrounding the theater’s production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s The Constant Prince in the early 1980s: underground public rehearsals, trouble with the special services, persecution of the actors, searches and interrogations. The accusations were clear: it was impermissible to portray the constancy of the human soul, impossible for the sacred inner world in a human’s soul – a place where no power and no authorities could enter -- to exist at all. The performance was regarded as a textbook for dissidents. The few performances that were held were like an explosion. For Gregory Hlady, who played the lead role, the story ended harshly: his creative life line was cut. He was banned from working in Kiev’s theaters or at the Dovzhenko film studio. He was essentially exiled from Kiev.

At the invitation of Jonas Vaitkus, he went to the Kaunas Theater in Lithuania. He learned Lithuanian, worked as an actor and became more and more interested in directing. He taught acting classes at the conservatory, teaching his student is own method of actor’s training. Inspired by the ideas of Vaitkus, he enrolled in the directing department of the State Film Making Institute, where he studied under Anatoly Vasiliev, a cult figure in the theatrical world. He played the leading roles in all Vasiliev’s best productions: The Devils, The Idiot, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Today We Improvise, Dumas. Hlady became a close colleague of Vasiliev, working in his theater, the School of Dramatic Arts, and traveling all around the world on tour with the theater.

Since 1990 Hlady has been living in Canada, where he works both in theater and academia. He has directed many productions in Canada and in Europe, and he acted in a number of rich roles. In the 1995 production of Woe From Wit, directed by Andreas Schmidt for the Berlin-Moscow festival, Hlady played Molchalin to Yuri Liubimov’s Fausov. He frequently appeared in film, although only twice with prominent Russian directors: in the unreleased 1995 film Anna Karamazoff directed by Rustam Khamdamov, and in Music for December (1994) directed by Ivan Dykhovichny. He has appeared in many American and Canadian television series and films, including the acclaimed Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle by Alan Rudolph. He has worked on the screen with Amanda Plummer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film L’Homme Ideal (The Ideal Man), directed by George Mikhalka, in which Hlady played the lead, was a huge box office success in Canada. He has played a number of character roles as a villain (usually charming rogues, and sometimes Russian rogues) in action films (including with Michael Paré). He conducts master classes in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Austria. He speaks and acts fluently in English, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, French, German and Italian.

Films

2006 – The Ugly Swans (directed by Konstantin Lopushansky) as Victor Banev
2006 – Déliverez-moi (directed by Denis Chouinard) as Milan
2006 – The Point (directed by Joshua Dorsey) as Grey Car Guy
2005 – Quelque Part Dans L’Inacheve (directed by Richard Jutras) as Milicien
2004 – Hlady: The Return (directed by Miroslava Khoroshun) – documentary film
2003 - L'Execution (Manners of Dying) (directed by Jeremy Peter Allen) as the cook
2003 – Jack Paradise (Les Nuits de Montréal) (directed by Gilles Noel) as Gino O’Connor
2003 – La Face Cachée de la Lune (directed by Robert Lepage) as the Interpreter
2002 – The Iris Effect (“The Exile”) (directed by Nikolai Lebedev) as Ivan
2002 – Spinning Boris (directed by Roger Spottiswoode) as Andrei Lugov
2001 – Agent of Influence (directed by Michel Poulette) as Gregory Aloysha
2001 – Le Marais (The Marsh) (directed by Kim Nguyen) as Alexandre
2001 – The Sum of All Fears (directed by Phil Alden Robinson) as Milinov
2000 – The Undefeated (directed by Oles Yanchuk) as General Roman Shukhevych
1999 – Laura Cadieux...la Suite (directed by Denise Filiatrault) as the Russian captain
1999 – The Tracker (directed by Jeff Schechter) as Gregory
1998 – Quelque Chose d’Organique (directed by Bertrand Bonello)
1998 – Violon rouge (directed by François Girard) as the coat attendant
1998 – Musketeers Forever (directed by Georges Chamchoum) as the lead Russian mobster