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.

Filmography

• 1971The Legend of Frenchie King — Spitting Bull
• 1968The Biggest Bundle of Them All — Mafia Guy in Sauna (uncredited)
• 1967Matchless
• 1967The Blonde from Peking — Fang Ho Kung
• 1967The Last Adventure — Kyobaski, producer
• 1966Il faut que je tue monsieur Rumann — M. Ruhmann
• 1966O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo — Yekota
• 1965Up to His Ears — Mr. Goh
• 1964License to Kill — Li-Hang
• 1964The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse — Dr. Krishna
• 1962My Uncle from Texas — The old Indian
• 1962The Rebel Gladiators — Gladiator
• 1961Man Wants to Live
• 1961Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World — High Priest
• 1961The Triumph of Michael Strogoff — Yusuf Ben Amektal
• 1960Journey to the Lost City — Yama, High Priest
• 1960Mistress of the World - Part II — Priester
• 1959The Indian Tomb — Yama
• 1959The Tiger of Eschnapur — Yama
• 1958The Doctor of Stalingrad
• 1956Corinna Darling — Chin
• 1956Michael Strogoff — Feofar Khan
• 1954Mata Hari's Daughter — Naos
• 1949Maya — Cachemire
• 1948La Renégate — Moktar
• 1938Rail Pirates — Wang
• 1938Street Without Joy — Louis Stinner
• 1938The Shanghai Drama — Lee Pang
• 1937The Wife of General Ling — General Ling
• 1936The Last Four on Santa Cruz — Reeder Alexis Aika
• 1935Frisians in Peril — Kommissar Tschernoff
• 1935Les Bateliers de la Volga — Kiro
• 1934Amok — Maté / Amok-afflicted Native
• 1934La bataille — Hirata
• 1934Police File 909 — Dr. Nitobe Tokeramo
• 1934The Battle — Hirata Takamuri
• 1934Volga in Flames — Silatschoff
• 1933A Man's Head — Radek
• 1933Typhoon — Doctor Nitobe Tokeramo
• 1930The Yellow Captain
• 1928Storm Over Asia — Bair
• 1926Rasplata — Director

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 2024Buryat in European Cinema — Himself (archive footage)