Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 19, 1995 TAG: 9505190092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Paramedics called to his home found Godunov dead shortly before noon, sheriff's Sgt. Bob Minutello said. Godunov had been seeing a physician who will list the death as natural causes, the sergeant said. No other details were immediately available.
Funeral arrangements weren't disclosed.
Godunov came to the United States in 1979 after spending 13 years with the Bolshoi Ballet. He joined the American Ballet Theatre in New York, dancing there for the next three years until he had a falling out with the ABT's artistic director, Mikhail Baryshnikov, also a Soviet defector.
The two had studied together at the Bolshoi, but an angry Godunov said his old friend ``threw me away like a potato peel.''
The tall, lean dancer with long, straight hair appeared on his own TV show, ``Godunov: The World to Dance In,'' in 1983-84 before starting his acting career as an Amish farmer in the Harrison Ford thriller ``Witness'' in 1985.
His other movie roles included a supercilious conductor in ``The Money Pit'' with Tom Hanks and a psychotic killer opposite Bruce Willis in ``Die Hard.'' More recently, he had roles in two little-known films, ``The Runestone'' and ``Waxwork II: Lost in Time.'' Just weeks ago, he was filming a movie in Budapest, his publicist said.
Godunov was touring the United States with the Bolshoi in August 1979 when he made worldwide news by requesting political asylum, saying he felt artistically restrained in his homeland.
by CNB