Georgy Millyar

Who was Georgy Millyar?

Georgy Frantsevich Millyar, sometimes spelled Milliar, was a Soviet/Russian actor, best known for playing evil spirits in Soviet fairy tale films, including the witch Baba Yaga in films such as Jack Frost and Fire, Water, and Brass Pipes.

Georgy Millyar was born into a wealthy family of Franz de Milieu, a French bridge builder working in Russia, and Elizaveta Zhuravlyova, a daughter of an Irkutsk goldminer. Millyar’s father died when he was almost three. Before the outbreak of the World War I, he and his widowed mother had moved from Moscow to Gelendzhik. After the October Revolution, Millyar’s family was left without relatives and means of living, their apartment in Moscow and a house in Gelendzhik were soon nationalized by the Bolsheviks. Millyar’s mother was prudent enough to remove the "de" particle from her and her son’s last name to conceal their French origin and then change it to Millyar. Even though Georgy Millyar was able to speak fluent French and German, he never mentioned this fact in any official documents.

After the October Revolution, Georgy Millyar worked as a props man at a Gelendzhik theater.