Leonid (Les) Stepanovych Tanyuk was born on August 7, 1938, and died on March 18, 2016.
He was a Ukrainian theatre and film director and formerly a dissident and the head of the Club of Creative Youth.
Following the 1991’s Ukrainian independence Tanyuk became a multiple reelected member of the Ukrainian parliament.
From 1991 until his passing Tanyuk was Chairman of the Union of theatrical figures of Ukraine.
He was the son of Stephen Samiylovych, a teacher of Ukrainian language and literatures and his mother was Natalya Mykolayivna, also a teacher of languages.
He had spent some time of his childhood in a Nazi concentration camp, he and his family returned to Ukraine, but they were not allowed to live in Kiev. They returned to his fathers hometown of Lutsk.
Les studied at the National University of Theatre, Film and TV in Kiev.
Les Tanyuk passed away at 77 yrs old.