Leonid Bykov

December 12, 1928 — Znamenka, Sloviansk Raion, Ukrainian SSR, USSR

Leonid Fedorovich Bykov (Russian: Леонид Фёдорович Быков, Ukrainian: Леонід Федорович Биков; 11 December 1928, in Znamenka village, Artemivsk Okruha of Ukrainian SSR – 11 April 1979, in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine, USSR) was a Ukrainian actor, film director, and script writer. He received the "Honored Artist of the RSFSR" title in 1965 and the "People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR" title in 1974. Bykov contributed to several Soviet World War II films that portrayed a stereotypical Soviet Ukrainian. Bykov died in a traffic accident in 1979 on the highway from Minsk to Kyiv.[2] In 1994, the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet after him, (4682) Bykov.