''Peter the Great'' is a 1986 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and sw ...

television miniseries directed by Marvin J. Chomsky and Lawrence Schiller, based on

Robert K. Massie Robert Kinloch Massie III (January 5, 1929 – December 2, 2019) was an American journalist and historian. He devoted much of his career to studying and writing about the House of Romanov, Russia's imperial family from 1613 to 1917. Massie was ...

's 1980 non-fiction book '' Peter the Great: His Life and World''. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of

Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was an Austrian-born Swiss actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', h ...

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage ...

Helmut Griem Helmut Griem (6 April 1932 – 19 November 2004) was a German film, television and stage actor, and director. Biography Born in Hamburg, Griem was primarily a stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhau ...

, Jan Niklas,

Elke Sommer Elke Sommer (; born Elke Baronin von Schletz, 5 November 1940) is a German actress. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in ''The Pink Panther'' sequel '' A Shot in the Dark'' (1964), the ...

, Renée Soutendijk, Ursula Andress, and

Mel Ferrer Melchor Gastón Ferrer (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ''Scaramouche'', ''Lili'' and ''Knights of the Roun ...

. The miniseries received generally positive reviews from critics and won three

Primetime Emmy Awards The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime E ...

, including Outstanding Miniseries. It was also nominated for three

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

, including Best Miniseries or Television Film.

Cast

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarch who ruled the ...

* Jan Niklas as

in early adulthood *

as Tsarevna Sophia *

as Prince Feodor Romodanovsky *

as William III and II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland *

as Sir

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the great ...

* Ursula Andress as Athalie *

Olegar Fedoro Olegar Fedoro (Birth name, ''né'' Olegár Pablo Fedóro; born 6 March 1958) is a Ukrainian-born former Soviet performer who later became a Spanish and then English actor. He enrolled in the acclaimed VGIK Film School (All-Russian State Unive ...

as Boyar Lopukhin *

Natalya Andrejchenko Natalya Eduardovna Andreychenko (russian: link=no, Ната́лья Эдуа́рдовна Андре́йченко; born May 3, 1956) is a Russian actress. Her most famous roles include the title character in ''Mary Poppins, Goodbye'' and Lyuba ...

as Tsaritsa Eudoxia Lopukhina *

as Captain Alexander Menshikov * Renée Soutendijk as Anna Mons (Peter's Dutch mistress) *

Hanna Schygulla Hanna Schygulla (; born 25 December 1943) is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German ...

as Catherine Skavronskaya (Peter's 2nd mistress and later on wife) * Christoph Eichhorn as Charles XII, King of Sweden *

Lilli Palmer Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Gl ...

as Tsarina Natalya, mother of Peter the Great *

as Frederick I, King in Prussia *

as Charlotte, Queen in Prussia *

Jan Malmsjö Jan Wilhelm Malmsjö (born 29 May 1932) is a Swedish stage and film actor, musical star and singer. He is married to Marie Göranzon and father to Jonas Malmsjö. Biography Malmsjö was born in Lund, Sweden. He trained at the prestigious ...

as The Patriarch * Boris Plotnikov as Tsarevich Alexis *

Jeremy Kemp Edmund Jeremy James Walker (3 February 1935 – 19 July 2019), known professionally as Jeremy Kemp, was an English actor. He was known for his significant roles in the miniseries '' The Winds of War'' and '' War and Remembrance'', the film '' ...

as General

Patrick Gordon Patrick Leopold Gordon of Auchleuchries (31 March 1635 – 29 November 1699) was a general and rear admiral in Russia, of Scottish origin. He was descended from a family of Aberdeenshire, holders of the estate of Auchleuchries, near Ellon. The ...

Geoffrey Whitehead Geoffrey Whitehead (born 1 October 1939) is an English actor. He has appeared in a range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at Shakespeare's Globe, St Martin's Theatre and the Bristol Old Vic. Early life Whiteh ...

as Prince Vasily Golitsyn * Graham McGrath as young adult

* Dennis DeMarne as the figure of Peter the Great at the narrating scenes of the later years * Ann Zacharias as Daria Lund, the mistress of Captain Alexander Menshikov * Algis Arlauskas as Father Theodosius The series was released as a three-tape VHS box (set in 1992, then, in 1994, as a single, lengthy VHS tape).

Awards and nominations

References

* ''The Complete Films of Laurence Olivier'' by Jerry Vermilye, Citadel Press, 1992.

External links

* * {{EmmyAward Limited Series 1986 American television series debuts 1986 American television series endings 1980s American drama television series 1980s American television miniseries American biographical series American historical television series Cultural depictions of Peter the Great Cultural depictions of Isaac Newton Cultural depictions of William III of England NBC original programming Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries winners Television shows based on biographies Television shows set in Russia Television series set in the 17th century Television series set in the 18th century Films directed by Marvin J. Chomsky