Lithuanian theatre, cinema, television actor and artistic director Donatas Banionis was born on April 28, 1924, in Kaunas.

In 1941, he started as an actor in Panevėžys’ Juozas Miltinis drama theatre. During the years of his creative activity, he acted in more than one hundred plays and about fifty cinema and television films. Awarded in various international and national contests as well as cinema and theatre festivals, he earned the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas’ Cavalier Medal - third class. In the West, he is most famous for his Kris Kevin role in Tarkovsky’s “Solaris”. He started his career by acting in several Lithuanian movies, but later he also acted in many Russian and German movies.

In 2004 the publishing house “Versus aureus” published Donatas Banionis’ book Memuarai (Memoirs).

The photo is from the personal archive of the actor.