Pavel Luspekayev, a legendary Soviet film and theatre actor, became mostly known for his role of Vereschagin in the popular movie Beloe solntse pustyni (aka White Sun of the Desert).

Pavel Borisovich Luspekayev was born in Lugansk (Ukraine) on April, 20th, 1927. The future actor studied at a vocational school in Lugansk. During the Great Patriotic War the 16-year-old boy joined a guerrilla detachment, acted as a scout and participated in fighting operations. After severe wounding Pavel Luspekayev was sent to the headquarters of the guerrilla movement of the 3rd Ukrainian front. Upon demobilization in 1944, Pavel joined the troupe of Voroshilovgrad Dramatic Theater. In 1946 Luspekayev entered Schepkin Theatre School, where he studied under K.A. Zubov. After graduation in 1950 Pavel Luspekayev worked at A.S.Griboedov Tbilisi Russian Drama Theater, then at the Lesia Ukrainka Kiev Theater of Russian Drama, where he performed several roles memorable for spectators. In 1959 the actor was invited to the company of Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theatre, where he worked till 1965. On the stage of Bolshoi Drama Theatre Pavel Luspekayev played his best theatre roles - Callen in The Defiant Ones, Bonar in The Fourth One, and Nagulnov in Virgin Soil Upturned.

The actor’s made his film debut in the film They Came from Mountains in 1955 and a bit later the adventure-fantasy movie The Secret of two Oceans. Though Pavel Luspekayev did not play many film roles, his powerful temperament and unusual actor’s gift never leave the spectator indifferent; the actor is organic and convincing almost in all his roles. Among the most memorable films with Pavel Luspekayev is Gennady Polok’s Respublika SHKID (1966) about a school for taming gang boys from the streets, the war film The Baltic Sky (1961), the screen version of Yuri Olesha’s Three Fat Men (1966) directed by A.Batalov and I.Shaprio, and the captivating drama Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn (Happy Long Life) (1966) by the outstanding director and script-writer Gennady Shpalikov.

However, the actor gained national popularity and love of millions of viewers thanks to one of his last film roles, which incorporated all the best qualities of Luspekayev’s characters – it was the role of customs officer Pavel Vereschagin in Vladimir Motyl’s legendary film White Sun of the Desert (1970).

After that starry appearance Pavel Luspekayev played his last film role in the history war drama Takaya dlinnaya, dlinnaya doroga (Such a long long road) (released in 1972).

On April, 17th, 1970 Pavel Borisovich Luspekayev died of aorta rupture in the Minsk Hotel in Moscow three days before his birthday.

Pavel Luspekayev was one of the most powerful drama theatre actors in the USSR. He had a mighty texture, a large and powerful constitution, an impressive face with furious, violent, and at times even brutal expression and a shrill, scathing look of bloodshot eyes. The actor had a most powerful, unrestrained temperament and enormous artistic inspiration, which enabled him to portray brilliantly wild characters overwhelmed with mighty passions. It caused high nervous excitation in spectators. Luspekayev had no match as a tragic actor in Leningrad (now Petersburg). Luspekayev got so deeply and selflessly immersed into his stage characters that he spontaneously rejected the author's text, and every time improvised, creating necessary remarks right on the run.