Suffered Official Ostracism : Prominent Soviet Actor Defects, Arrives in L.A.

A Soviet matinee idol who as a boy spent his allowance to see American adventure movies flew to Hollywood early Saturday, defecting from the homeland that effectively excommunicated him from the Soviet cinema.

Oleg Vidov, whose Viking good looks and swashbuckling movie hero roles made him one of the Soviet Union’s top box-office draws through the 1970s, arrived Saturday morning on a rain-delayed flight from New York.

Searching the baggage area for what he called his “refugee color” suitcases, containing the clothes and scrapbooks he managed to take when he left Yugoslavia in May, Vidov said that has always loved American films--from the works of director King Vidor to his latest favorite, “Kramer vs. Kramer.”

“I feel very much comfortable in Los Angeles because around me are my colleagues, cinema makers,” said Vidov, who also directs films. “When I saw beautiful American films, they led me by their example--to make me proud of my profession and happy that I’m a film actor.”

Fans to Be Disappointed

His East European fans “will be a little bit disappointed” at his defection, “but also they know about my last years’ (political) problems,” Vidov said. “They will not be happy, but they can understand, and I hope they can forgive me.”

Obviously helped by striking good looks that prompted Albert Johnson, a UC Berkeley cinema professor, to call him “the Robert Redford of Soviet cinema,” he broke through the Soviets’ “un-star” system and achieved popularity with audiences.

Vidov’s light, adventurous starring vehicles were largely devoid of political content, unlike many Soviet films. His audiences flocked to fairy tales, romantic films and a 1972 cowboy movie, “The Headless Horseman,” which ultimately sold a reported 300 million tickets.

Although his work is obscure in the United States, his friend and sponsor, John Frederick, said that a four-hour television miniseries starring Vidov is scheduled to be broadcast here this month. Entitled “Behind the Sunrise” in this country, it features Vidov as a Cossack leading Germans over an old trade route to China.

Vidov’s airport arrival here was a far cry from his departure Wednesday from Rome. There, he waited in line nervously to board a plane for New York, wearing a hat pulled down over his eyes, when a Soviet film delegation just getting off another plane walked past him.

“Oh my God, I directed that actress,” a witness heard Vidov say. “That man’s from the KGB. That director is a friend of mine.”

Vidov, whose impending arrival had already set certain Los Angeles emigre circles abuzz, was “a very, very, very popular movie star,” says Lilya Sokolov, assistant editor and general manager of the Russian-language weekly Almanac Panorama. “He’s a handsome man. Quite famous.”

Reticent About Age

Now in his late 30s (he will not be specific about his age), the blond-haired and blue-eyed Vidov fell in love with films as a boy living with an aunt on the Chinese border. In Moscow, he was discovered by someone casting a children’s movie and, in competition with 400 youngsters, won a spot studying acting at the state film school.

He was “discovered” by the European film world in 1967, when his medieval Viking epic film, “The Red Mantle,” won acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Major movie-industry figures, including director Federico Fellini and producer Dino De Laurentiis, sought Soviet permission to borrow Vidov for such productions as “Satyricon” but were refused.

One multinational production, “The Battle of Neretva,” produced by De Laurentiis in Yugoslavia in 1969, featured Vidov with Yul Brynner, Orson Welles and Franco Nero. A year later, he worked with Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer in a De Laurentiis production of “Waterloo.”

Sudden Downward Mobility

Vidov’s troubles began about four years ago, after the actor, dissatisfied with his lack of creative control, went back to film school to study directing and in time made a picture that criticized the Soviet transport system. He also divorced his wife, a close family friend of Leonid I. Brezhnev.

The leading roles stopped, he was no longer allowed to tour East Bloc countries, and one film he was directing was canceled. Thereafter, Vidov made a living touring the Soviet Union giving talks to fans.

He was married again, to a Yugoslav woman, and moved to Belgrade in 1983. In May, he was ordered to return to Moscow. However, a friend got him an Austrian visa, and he crossed the border into Austria to begin the journey that led to the United States.

Frederick said he cut through red tape by sending telegrams to publisher Walter Annenberg and President Reagan and was able to get a special visa for Vidov to enter the United States, where he hopes to resume his work.