Leonid Volodarskiy
Leonid Veniaminovitch Volodarskiy (Russian: Леони́д Вениами́нович Волода́рский is a Russian translator, writer, and weekly radio show author.[1] He is mostly known in Russia as one of the most popular home video voice-over translators of 1990s by a movies, such as The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator dilogy, Last Action Hero, A Nightmare on Elm Street and many others. Volodarskiy was also the first translator of Stephen King books into Russian.
Leonid Volodarskiy Леонид Вениаминович Володарский | |
|---|---|
 Volodarskiy in 2011 | |
| Born | May 20, 1950 |
| Known for | movie translator radio show anchor writer |
Biography
I'm not interested in my voice at all. Back in time I was a film translator and so, now I'm recognized primary by voice, constantly asked about a clothespin on my nose. I don't like it. I'm not an opera singer and my voice is not in a slightest bit related to my individuality. They say it's a kind of history?.. Well, OK. But I live at present.
Volodarskiy graduated from Maurice Thorez Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. Later he worked in the Africa Institute and Institute of International Workers Movement of Soviet Academy of Sciences.
Leonid started his movie translations career in 1968 working on a movie festivals in the Soviet Union, but in 1979 he began making his first illegal translations of american movies. His characteristic voice features, caused by a nasal fracture, had been giving rise to rumors that he has been snagging it with a clothespin during movie translation process so that KGB wouldn't recognize him by voice.
Being interested in the intelligence history, he is also an author of the political detective novel Snow from Central America and some other writings. Author and an anchor of ten TV-series about Soviet Intelligence of 1920–30 named Intelligence, as not known by the general public. Author and anchor of radio show Right for a rest and Once on a Rain for Silver Rain FM.
Dmitry Puchkov's parody
Dmitry Puchkov, known in Russia as «Goblin», parodied Volodarskiy's voice in his humorous dub of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace named Star Wars: Storm in the Glass. In this parody the robot-chatterbird C-3PO with a voice similar to Volodarskiy's introduces himself as a Megatranslator, who made more than a thousand dubs.
References
- Леонид Володарский: Америка теряет всякий стыд (in Russian). KP.ru. 15 October 2003. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
- Черняков Е. 4 легендарных голоса эпохи "пиратских" VHS // Российская газета, 30.09.2013
- Сергеева Ж., Ануфриева А. О чём говорит ваш голос // Psychologies, 21.01.2006. № 35