Leonid Bykov

Leonid Fedorovich Bykov (Ukrainian: Леонід Федорович Биков, Russian: Леонид Фёдорович Быков; 11 December 1928 in Znamenka village, Artemivsk Okruha of Ukraine, USSR - 11 April 1979 in Kiev Oblast of Ukraine, USSR) was a Ukraine-born Soviet actor, film director, and script writer. He received the "Honored Artist of the RSFSR" title in 1965 and the "People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR" title in 1974.Bykov contributed to several Soviet World War II films that portrayed a stereotypical Soviet Ukrainian. Bykov died in a traffic accident in 1979 on the highway from Minsk to Kiev. In 1994, the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet after him, (4682) Bykov.