Sergei Fyodorovich Bondarchuk was a Soviet and Russian actor and filmmaker of Ukrainian origin who was one of the leading figures of Soviet cinema in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He is known for his sweeping period dramas, including War and Peace (1966-67), his internationally acclaimed four-part film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel, and for Waterloo (1970), a Napoleonic War epic.