10 famous Ukrainians: You know about the Klitschkos but what about these others
Famous Ukrainians include Leonard Nimoy, Mila Kunis, Milla Jovovich and Jack Palance
Born Volodymyr Palahniuk, American actor Jack Palance was the son of Ukrainian immigrants. Palance was best know for playing tough guys and villains and his acting break came as Marlon Brando's understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. He was nominated for three Academy Awards and won an Oscar for his role in City Slickers (1991). He was also the host of the ABC television series Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Spock himself has links to Ukraine. The iconic Star Trek actor was born in Boston to Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, which is in present-day Ukraine. His parents left Iziaslav separately: his father walked over the border into Poland while his mother and grandmother hid under bales of hay in a horse-drawn wagon. They reunited in the United States. Nimoy was known internationally for his role as Spok, which he played for over 50 years in the Star Trek franchise.
The star of Family Guy and That 70s Show, Mila Kunis and her Jewish family fled from Soviet Ukraine to the United States when she was seven years old due to antisemitism in the Soviet Union. She says her family left the USSR because they saw "no future" there for Mila and her brother. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
Leon Trotsky was a Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary who was instrumental in the 1917 revolution and developed a variant of Marxism which has become known as Trotskyism. He'd later fall out with Stalin and, after a period of exile, was killed in Mexico by a Soviet-sent assassain with an ice-pick.
Born in Kyiv, Milla Jovovich spent most of her early childhood in Moscow, Russian SFSR. She and her parents emigrated to London when she was five. They later settled in Los Angeles. Jovovich rose to fame after her role in the 1997 film The Fifth Element, and she starred as Alice in the film franchise Resident Evil, which became the highest-grossing film series to be based on video games.
Regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka (now Sontsivka, Ukraine). His works include the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Before his death he lived near Red Square in Moscow and he died at the age of 61 on the same day as Joseph Stalin.
Grammy Award-winning violinist Isaac Stern was born in Kremenets, Poland (now Ukraine), into a Jewish family. His family moved to San Francisco in 1921 when he was 14 months old. He toured the Soviet Union in 1951, the first American violinist to do so, and in 1967 he refused to return to the USSR until the Soviet regime allowed artists to enter and leave the country freely.
Born in Ukraine in 1964 as Dmitry Brill, DJ Dmitry is a member of American club/dance group Deee-Lite. The group released their worldwide smash hit, Groove Is In The Heart, in 1990. He is the only Soviet national ever to have a Top 40 hit in the US.
Novelist Joseph Conrad was born in Berdychiv, Ukraine in 1857. He wrote acclaimed short stories and novels during the peak of the British Empire that reflected aspects of a European-dominated world, including imperialism and colonialism. His novels include Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.
The fourth prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir was born in Kyiv in Ukraine in 1898 and she moved to Wisconsin, United States as a child with her family in 1906. She and her husband emigrated to then-Palestine in 1921. Meir came out of retirement to take office on March 17, 1969, and will be portrayed by Helen Mirren in a forthcoming film.
