Peter the Great is a 1986

1986 in television

The year 1986 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1986.For the American network television schedule, please see 1986-87 American network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:*September 6 –...

 NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 television mini-series starring Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...

 as Russian leader Peter the Great, and based on the biography by Robert K. Massie

Robert K. Massie

Robert Kinloch Massie III is an American historian, author, Pulitzer Prize recipient. He has devoted much of his career to studying the House of Romanov, Russia's royal family from 1613-1917.-Biography:...

. It won three Primetime Emmy Awards, including the award for Outstanding Miniseries

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries

The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries represents excellence in the category of miniseries that are considered either six hours or more, or more than two parts....

.

Plot summary

Russia at the dawn of the 18th century—a vast, chilling mysterious land, medieval in its character. A country led by a man whose curious, questing spirit is eager to learn all that is new. A monarch who brings his feudal country into the modern world. A shrewd tsar and a visionary. Statesman, sailor, and shipbuilder. Military leader. A husband and a father. A man who dared to dream the impossible dream, and succeeded.

Cast

• Maximilian Schell
  Maximilian Schell
  Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
  
   as Peter the Great
• Jan Niklas
  Jan Niklas
  Jan Niklas is a German actor. He is best known for playing in TV films such as Peter The Great, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna and Anne Frank: The Whole Story. He also played in the Hungarian film Colonel Redl which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.-Early life:Jan...
  
   as Peter the Great in early adulthood
• Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
  
   as Tsarevna Sophia
• Omar Sharif
  Omar Sharif
  Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
  
   as Prince Feodor Romodanovsky
• Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Olivier
  Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
  
   as King William III & II
  William III of England
  William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
  
   of England, Scotland & Ireland
• Trevor Howard
  Trevor Howard
  Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...
  
   as Sir Isaac Newton
  Isaac Newton
  Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
  
  
• Ursula Andress
  Ursula Andress
  Ursula Andress is a Swiss actress and a sex symbol of the 1960s. She is known for her roles as Bond girl Honey Ryder in Dr...
  
   as Athalie
• Olegar Fedoro
  Olegar Fedoro
  Olegar Fedoro is a Ukrainian-born former Soviet performer who later became a Spanish and then English actor.He started with a work for Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker...
  
   as Boyar Lopukhin
• Natalya Andreychenko
  Natalya Andreychenko
  Natalya Andrejchenko is a popular Soviet actress of 1970s and 1980s. She is famous as the Russian Mary Poppins.Natalya made a decision to become an actress in early high school. After an unsuccessful attempt to get into the Schepkin Art School, she was admitted to the Gerasimov Institute of...
  
   as Tsarina Eudoxia Lopukhina
  Eudoxia Lopukhina
  Tsarina Evdokiya Feodorovna Lopukhina was the first wife of Peter I of Russia. They married in 1689 but divorced in 1698...
  
  
• Helmut Griem
  Helmut Griem
  Helmut Griem was a German actor.Griem was primarily a German-speaking stage actor, appearing at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Staatliches Schauspielbühnen in Berlin, in the Munich Kammerspiele, and finally in the...
  
   as Captain Alexander Menshikov
  Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov
  Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov was a Russian statesman, whose official titles included Generalissimus, Prince of the Russian Empire and Duke of Izhora , Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Cosel. A highly appreciated associate and friend of Tsar Peter the Great, he was the de facto ruler of...
  
  
• Renée Soutendijk
  Renée Soutendijk
  Renette Pauline Soutendijk, known as Renée Soutendijk, is a Dutch actress. She was a favorite star of director Paul Verhoeven's films and is perhaps best known for her work in his 1980 release Spetters. Her good looks and striking blond hair secured her status as a Dutch sex symbol in the 1980s...
  
   as Anna Mons
  Anna Mons
  Anna Mons was a German commonner who almost succeeded in marrying Tsar Peter the Great.- Biography :In 1691, during one of his visits to the German Quarter, young Peter I of Russia became enamoured of Anna Mons, the daughter of Dutch wine merchant Johann Mon. It is generally thought he was from...
  
   (Peter's Dutch mistress)
• Hanna Schygulla
  Hanna Schygulla
  Hanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer. She is generally considered the most prominent German actress of the New German Cinema.-Life and career:Schygulla was born in Königshütte, Upper Silesia,...
  
   as Catherine Skavronskaya
  Catherine I of Russia
  Catherine I , the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.-Life as a peasant woman:The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Born on...
  
   (Peter's 2nd mistress and later on wife)
• Christoph Eichhorn
  Christoph Eichhorn
  Christoph Eichhorn is a German television actor and director. He is the son of German actor Werner Eichhorn.- Actor :* 1973: The Tenderness of Wolves / Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe* 1979: Ein Kapitel für sich...
  
   as Charles XII, King of Sweden
  Charles XII of Sweden
  Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
  
  
• Lilli Palmer
  Lilli Palmer
  Lilli Palmer , born Lilli Marie Peiser, was a German actress. She won the Volpi Cup, the Deutscher Filmpreis three times, and was nominated twice for a Golden Globe Award.-Life and career:...
  
   as Tsarina Natalya
  Natalia Naryshkina
  Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina was the Tsaritsa of Russia from 1671 to 1676 as the second spouse of tsar Alexei I of Russia.-Biography:Coming from a petty noble family, daughter of Kirill Poluektovich Naryshkin and wife Anna Leontyevna Leontyeva Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina was the Tsaritsa of...
  
  , mother of Peter The Great
• Mel Ferrer
  Mel Ferrer
  Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
  
   as Frederick I, King Of Prussia
  Frederick I of Prussia
  Frederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union . The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia . From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
  
  
• Elke Sommer
  Elke Sommer
  Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
  
   as Charlotte, Queen of Frederick I
  Sophia Charlotte of Hanover
  Sophia Charlotte of Hanover was the Queen consort of Prussia as wife of Frederick I of Prussia. She was the daughter of Ernst August, Elector of Hanover, and Sophia of the Palatinate...
  
  
• Jan Malmsjö
  Jan Malmsjö
  Jan Wilhelm Malmsjö is a Swedish stage and actor, musical star and singer. He is married to Marie Göranzon and father to Jonas Malmsjö.-Biography:...
  
   as The Patriarch
  Patriarch Adrian
  Patriarch Adrian was the last pre-revolutionary Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.Adrian caught the eye of Patriarch Joachim, when he was still an archmandrite at Chudov Monastery. In 1686, Joachim appointed him metropolitan of Kazan and Sviyazhsk. On August 24, 1690, Adrian was chosen to replace...
  
  
• Boris Plotnikov
  Boris Plotnikov
  Boris Grigoryevich Plotnikov is a Russian film actor. His film debut was as Sotnikov in The Ascent, the acclaimed final film of Russian director Larisa Shepitko.- External links :...
  
   as Tsarevich Alexis
• Graham McGrath
  Graham McGrath
  Graham McGrath is an English actor with film, television, radio, and theatre credits. He currently also works as a freelance photographer based near London in Surrey, England. He had tuition at the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music in London when he was only 4 years old...
  
   as adolescent Peter the Great
• Dennis DeMarne as the figure of Peter the Great at the narrating scenes of the later years

The series was released as a three-tape VHS box set in 1992, then, in 1994, as a single, lengthy VHS tape.

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Award

Primetime Emmy Award

The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...

• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries
  Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries
  The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries represents excellence in the category of miniseries that are considered either six hours or more, or more than two parts....
  
   (won)
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore)
  Primetime Emmy Award
  The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
  
   - Laurence Rosenthal
  Laurence Rosenthal
  Laurence Rosenthal is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, and films.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied piano and composition...
  
   (won)
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
  Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
  This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or Special.-2000s:-2010s:- External links :*, Information Please Database, Pearson PLC...
  
   - Ella Maklakova, Sibylle Ulsamer (won)
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie - Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave
  Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
  
   (nomination)
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Special
  Primetime Emmy Award
  The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
  
   - Vittorio Storaro
  Vittorio Storaro
  Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. is an Italian cinematographer.In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild judged Storaro one of history's ten most influential cinematographers.-Biography:...
  
   (nomination)
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries or a Special
  Primetime Emmy Award
  The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
  
   - (nomination)

Golden Globe Award

Golden Globe Award

The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

• Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or Television Film - (nomination)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film - Jan Niklas
  Jan Niklas
  Jan Niklas is a German actor. He is best known for playing in TV films such as Peter The Great, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna and Anne Frank: The Whole Story. He also played in the Hungarian film Colonel Redl which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.-Early life:Jan...
  
   (nomination)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film - Lili Palmer (nomination)

Writers Guild of America Award

Writers Guild of America Award

The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...

• Best Adapted Long Form - Edward Anhalt
  Edward Anhalt
  Edward Anhalt was a noted screenwriter, producer, and documentary film-maker. After working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for Pathé and CBS-TV he teamed with his wife Edna Anhalt, née Richards, during World War II to write pulp fiction...
  
  (won)