Yul Brynner
This month it's Russian cinema that is in the spotlight. And with the likes of Timur Bekmambetov and movies such as Mongol it's a film industry that is on the up and breaking into the mainstream.
So to further celebrate the Russian film industry FemaleFirst takes a look at some of the best actors to have graced the big screen.
Born in Russia Yul Brynner was one of the most recognisable actors of the fifties and sixties with performances in the likes of The Magnificent Seven and The Ten Commandments.
But it was his role in The King and I that launched his career in 1956, he would go on to play King Mongkut of Siam 4,626 times on stage, a role which landed him a Best Actor Oscar.
That same year he starred alongside Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments and with Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia.
The Magnificent Seven, which saw him star alongside Steve McQueen,Charles Bronson and Eli Wallach remains one of the most popular Westerns almost fifty years after it's release.
The actor was married four times and died in 1985 at the age of sixty five from lung cancer.
Constantin Stanislavski was one of the country's most celebrated thespians who acted as well as directed, his main love being the theatre.
He was the co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1897 he backed playwrights such as Maksim Gorki and Anton Chekhov as well as laying the foundations of modern opera.
Stanislavski developed a system in teaching his students the art of acting he focused on the development of artistic truth on stage by getting his pupils to live in their parts.
Actors such as James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp Sidney Poitier, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey have all worked within this 'system'.
He died in 1938 aged seventy five.
Lila Kedrova enjoyed a career that spanned over fifty years but it began back in 1932 when she joined the Moscow Art Theatre touring company.
Spending most of her life in France it was French movies where she made her big screen debut and it wasn't until 1964 that she landed her first English speaking role.
Zorba the Greek was based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis and Kedrova won a Best Supporting Actress gong for her performance, as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe and Bafta.
She reprised her role as Mme Hortense on Broadway and more awards came her way as she won a Tony Award for her performance.
She died in 2000 aged eighty one from pneumonia.
Vera Karalli was a star of the silent era of Russian film but she began her studies in Moscow Theatre School under the watchful eye of Alexander Gorsky.
Her early career saw her perform in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company in 1909 before going on to appear in the Bolshoi Theatre becoming a ballerina in 1915.
While she was a successful dancer Karalli was also carving out an acting career and she became one of the country's most celebrated actresses.
She made her big screen debut in 1914 in Do You Remember and she went on to star in sixteen silent movies over the next five years.
But her acting career came to end when she was named as one of the women present when Rasputin was murdered, she lived the rest of her days in exile dying in 1972 in Austria.
And while all of the above may have been the success stories of yesterday it's twenty year old Anton Yelchin that is flying the Russian flag in Hollywood at the moment.
The young actor made his debut in 2001 with parts in 15 Minutes, Along Came A Spider and Hearts in Atlantis.
And while Alpha Dog and Charlie Bartlett were good roles for Yelchin summer 2009 looks set to be his big breakthrough as he lands roles in Star Trek and Terminator Salvation, two of the summer's big blockbusters.
Yelchin joins the new look Star Trek cast in J.J Abrams rebooting of the much loved sci-fi classic in the role of Pavel Chekov.
And next month sees him take on the role of Kyle Reese in the fourth movie in the Terminator franchise. He also has two more movies, Middle of Nowhere and You and I, awaiting release this year.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Anton Yelchin