Lithuanian Film Director, Screenwriter, Actor. His parents moved from Paris, France to Lithuania when he was four-years-old. He graduated from high school in Panevezys, Lithuania, then studied drama at an acting studio and later graduated from the Moscow All-Union Institute of Cinematography. In 1952, he was employed at Panevezys Drama Theater as an actor and director's assistant. Quoting the June 2016 issue of "East European Film Bulletin", "Working for the Lithuanian Film Studios during the Soviet period, he became one of the most compelling and unique Lithuanian directors." Starting in 1961, he directed eleven films: while still in college, "Canonade" in 1961; "Footsteps in the Night" in 1962; had a acting role in "March, March Tra-Ta-Ta" in 1964; had an acting role in "Stairway to Heaven" in 1966; "Ladder on the Sky" in 1967; had a acting role in "June, the Beginning of Summer" in 1969; had an acting role in "Stone on Stone" in 1971; a TV adventure movie that was based on Jack London’s short story, “Smoke and Shorty” in 1975; a classic Lithuanian film which he had an acting role, "The Flight Across the Atlantic" in 1983. Throughout his career, as with most artists, he had to struggle with Soviet censorship. Even though his films were closely scrutinized by Moscow censors, he did not step back from his political convictions and adapted Mykolas Sluckis’ novel "Staircase to Heaven". It was the first Lithuanian novel that illustrated the post-war years as a distressing period of social transformation. At other times, he had to rewrite some of screenplays to please the government. He made several documentaries and wrote screenplays for himself and other directors. In 1967 he was awarded the State Prize for Director. Interviews with him, and his contributions to the “Kinas” magazine, paint the picture of an artist who is inseparable from his art. As a young man was married G.Balandytę; his second wife was R.Vabalo Elvyra Žebertavič.