- Birth nameTadeush Rafailovich Kasyanov
- Tadeush Kasyanov is a professional martial arts coach turned actor known for Pirates of the 20th Century (1980).
He was born Tadeush Rafailovich Kasyanov on 14 November 1938, in Russia. Young Kasyanov was trained by his father, a professional boxing coach, then studied martial arts under Aleksei Shturmin in Moscow. In the 70s, Kasyanov developed his original style and became a coach for Moscow army club. He made his film debut as a gangster in V zone osobogo vnimaniya (1978).
Tadeush Kasyanov is best known for his powerful performance in the popular Russian movie Pirates of the 20th Century (1980). His extraordinary fighting technique impressed the Soviet audiences and won him a huge following. But he also got enemies in Russia, and his success came at a sad price: he was falsely accused and imprisoned for a year and a half, albeit at the end he was cleared of all charges and was awarded compensation for the false charges against him. Since the 1990s, Tadeush Kasyanov has been running his own school of martial arts. He was designated Honored Coach of Russia. Mr. Kasyanov is married, and his daughter is also a martial arts coach in Moscow, Russia.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
- [Speaking about the film 'Pirates of the 20th Century' (1980)] I was given the part of a boatswain, and I tried to get into the character: I questioned everyone, went all over the ship, copying the ways of a ship boatswain. I'd chosen my costume myself, the beret with the anchor, and the fact that I had served in the marines. It was in the script, and it was conveyed in the film. And the faded T-shirt, and the marine pants with a belt, and the soft boots which were easy to throw off in case the ship goes down and you have to go into the water. All this I had to procure myself.
- [Speaking about the film 'Pirates of the 20th Century' (1980)] But it so happened that Talgat [Nigmatulin, an actor who plays a villain in the film] found out about my participation in the film, and he was one of the students at our school. He came up to me and said: 'Sansei, may I work out with you on the ship?' He was trained by one of my pupils, Victor Smekalin, who was to become the nation's champion in 1980. 'All right, Talgat!' I said. 'It will help you upgrade your technique.' His legs didn't go high enough. He was so happy, and we really worked out a lot on the ship. Other actors, seeing what we were doing, tried to join us training in those days and weeks that we were together. Many of them tried to emulate us, because we were a team. None of us drank or smoked. All the guys were very good, very solid. And, naturally, I was their leader, and that whole climate issued from me. All the more so that I'd assured them that everything would work out right, because we had at our disposal the whole arsenal of techniques. We performed all the stunts with absolute composure. And when people saw that we did it with confidence, with no fear and reproach, they were very much influenced by it and little by little they fell under our influence. Frankly speaking, knowing the size of our country and the mentality of our Party leaders, I couldn't even imagine the film would be such a success, though I knew people would like it. It was just the right timing when karate was only beginning [was rising] in our country. At that time there were very little, just a few, imported action movies, such as 'Lady Karate', 'Direct Hit! Hell Fist', 'Yumil and the Red Dragon's Revenge', which greatly impressed us. I watched them thinking that we could do no worse. But the film's success astounded everyone, and me in the first place, but though I'm a very emotional person, I took this success with restraint... with restrained composure.
- [Speaking about the film 'Pirates of the 20th Century' (1980)] I used to train the [Russian] marines in Cossack Bay, near Sevastopol, and we utilized some of that experience. So this way... I became the director of fights and stunts. But I looked at it as an everyday job. It didn't get to me, it didn't bother me in any way, like it did others who were camera-shy... Well, the camera's doing its work, I'm doing mine, and that's it.
- Stas Govorukhin [screenwriter for the film 'Pirates of the 20th Century' (1980)] called me up and said: 'Tadeush! There is an interesting film script based on real events when they tried to seize our ship in the Southern seas and our sailors couldn't do anything about it.' I said: 'Stasik, let's have a look at it.' And the reason he called us was because Volodya Vysotsky always came to our workouts. He just sat there without saying anything. We had a very pleasant working environment there, with semi-darkened hall, and no one pestering Volodya. We did our training, he watched us.... I guess they knew each other.
- [Speaking about the film 'Pirates of the 20th Century' (1980)] So Govorukhin called me and told me about the script... I asked: 'Who's going to direct it?' He said: 'My friend, Durov.' I had known Govorukhin for some time, we made three films together, so I thought we could do it well. Besides, that would have popularized our school. It was 1979, when the Central School of Karate was opened in Moscow. I was chief coach at the school, and I planned to use many of my boys. I trained Kazakhs, Kirghizs, Indians, boys of different ethnic origin. We'd bring together all those mixed looks and put them into the film. And that's what we did.
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