Anton Viktorovich Yelchin is an American film
and television actor.
He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing
in several television roles and the Hollywood
films Along Came a Spider and Hearts in Atlantis.
Yelchin later appeared on the television series
Huff and starred in the films House of D,
Alpha Dog, Star Trek and its sequel Star Trek
Into Darkness, Terminator Salvation, The Smurfs,
Fright Night and Like Crazy.
Yelchin's role as Jacob Clarke in the Steven
Spielberg miniseries Taken was significant
in furthering his career as a child actor.
Personal life
Yelchin was born March 11, 1989, in Leningrad,
Russia.
His family is Jewish.
His parents, Irina Korina and Viktor Yelchin,
were pair figure skaters who were celebrities
as stars of the Leningrad Ice Ballet for 15
years.
Nationally, Yelchin's parents were the third-ranked
pair team; they thus qualified for the 1972
Winter Olympics, but were not permitted to
participate by the Soviet authorities.
Yelchin's family moved to the United States
in September 1989, receiving status as refugees
from political oppression.
As of 2007, Yelchin's mother works as a figure
skating choreographer and his father as a
figure skating coach, having been Sasha Cohen's
first trainer.
Yelchin's uncle is the children's author and
painter Eugene Yelchin.
Yelchin has stated that he "wasn't very good"
at figure skating, his parents' profession.
He once played in a punk band named The Hammerheads,
though the group has since disbanded.
He enjoys playing the guitar, having said
that it gives him "a lot of fulfillment",
and is a fan of acoustic blues music.
Yelchin attended the Sherman Oaks Center for
Enriched Studies, in Tarzana, Los Angeles,
California, and enrolled at the University
of Southern California in the fall of 2007
to study film.
As of 2009, he lives in Burbank, California.
Career
Yelchin began acting at the age of 9 in the
independent film A Man is Mostly Water.
His earliest roles include Jackson in A Time
for Dancing, Milo in Delivering Milo, Tommy
Warshaw in House of D, and Jacob Clarke in
the miniseries Taken.
He made a guest appearance as Stewart, Cheryl
David's nephew and a self-described magician,
in a season four episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm,
and starred as Byrd Huffstodt, the 14-year-old
son of Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt, on the
television series Huff, which ran from 2004
to 2006.
In 2006, he also had a role on an episode
of the series Law & Order: Criminal Intent,
playing a boy who falls in love with his teacher.
His biggest film recognition came for the
role of Bobby Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis,
for which he won Best Performance in a Feature
Film – Leading Young Actor at the 2002 Young
Artist Awards.
He also appeared in the Criminal Minds episode
"Sex, Birth & Death" as Nathan Harris, a boy
who has fantasies about killing prostitutes.
Yelchin starred in Alpha Dog, a crime thriller
that received an American release on January
12, 2007.
In the film he played Zack Mazursky, a character
based on real-life kidnap and murder victim
Nicholas Markowitz.
USA Today's review described the performance
as "heartbreakingly endearing".
After the premiere, Markowitz's mother praised
his portrayal of her son.
Yelchin subsequently headlined Fierce People,
a drama which received a limited release on
September 7 of that year and co-starred Diane
Lane and Donald Sutherland.
In 2008 Yelchin played the title role in Charlie
Bartlett, a film about a wealthy teenager
in a public high school.
Also that year, Yelchin appeared alongside
the Russian duo t.A.T.u. in the movie You
and I, and co-starred with Susan Sarandon
and Justin Chatwin in Middle of Nowhere.
He next starred in two May 2009 releases:
the eleventh Star Trek film, in which he portrayed
17-year old navigator Pavel Chekov, and Terminator
Salvation, in which he was cast as a teenage
Kyle Reese.
In 2011, Yelchin portrayed Charley Brewster
in the remake of Fright Night, directed by
Craig Gillespie, starred in the romantic drama
Like Crazy, and voiced Clumsy Smurf in the
film adaptation of The Smurfs.
He provided the voice for the Albino Pirate
character in the animated film The Pirates!
In an Adventure with Scientists.
He reprised his role in Star Trek Into Darkness
and played the lead in the thriller Odd Thomas.
Filmography
Video Games
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Anton Yelchin at the Internet Movie Database
Anton Yelchin at the TCM Movie Database
Anton Yelchin at AllMovie
