Yury Mefodyevich Solomin was born on June 18, 1935 into a musical family in Chita.

He is the elder brother of another well-known actor Vitaly Solomin. Yury felt aspiration for performing arts in school days; he took part in plays of the city Palace of Pioneers. In Chita, having watched the movie Small Theatre and Its Master released for the 125th anniversary of the theater, Yury learned about Shchepkin School and right after finishing school submitted documents there. He did enter in 1953 and joined a class of the great Russian actress Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya. Having graduated from the Theatre School in 1957, Yury Solomin became the actor of the Maly Theater, where he has been working till date today and which he considers to be his home. For the first time he took the stage of this theater as a second-year student performing bit parts. Quite soon the young actor started playing the leads in stage productions of the Soviet repertoire. Outstanding talent, congenital charm, soft lyricism along with daring manful image, and fine looks ensured him bright future. Afterwards he got roles from the classical Russian repertoire, which made it possible for the actor to manifest his tendency for dramatic effect, and ability for subtle psychological portrayal.

 

Solomin’s versatile gift as an actor let him play a wide range of roles with identical success. It is also true when it comes to Russian cinema, where he is no less known. It was Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya, who helped Yury Solomin with getting access to filming. She recommended him to the film director I.Annensky for a leading role in the movie Sleepless Night (1960), which became Solomin’s film debut.
 

Yuri Solomin gained all-Union popularity thanks to his role in the serial film Aide-de-camp of His Excellency (1970), whereas his role in Akira Kurosawa's movie Dersu Uzala (1975) made the actor known in the world cinema.  In the following years Solomin played in more than 60 movies and series:  versatile, dramatic, lyrical, distinguishing, comedy, making every role an event and totally warming to his roles and entering into the spirit of his characters. 

 

Solomin has also revealed his talent as a stage director, as well as a film director. He has worked as a director and an actor in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Japan.