John Hodiak

I want other Ukrainians to feel that they have a chance. Maybe not in this field, but in any other field. I receive many letters… from Ukrainians who thank me for not changing my name and not pretending to be either Polish or Russian.

John Hodiak

John Hodiak was an American actor of Ukrainian descent, the owner of a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

He was born in 1914 in Pittsburgh to Ukrainian immigrants from the Lviv region. He received his elementary and secondary education in Hamtramck, attended a Ukrainian evening school, performed in Ukrainian plays at the local Ukrainian Catholic Church parish, studied at the Vasyl Avramenko dance studio, and participated in the Young Ukrainian Nationalists organization. After graduating from high school in 1930, he received a scholarship to Western University. In 1933, he got a job at the Chevrolet office and performed in evening radio plays. Eventually, he moved to Chicago and became a regular dramatic actor on the radio.

In 1942, John was invited to Hollywood to star in the movie “A stranger in Town”. Later, the actor worked for the Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, and the films “Lifeboat” and “Trial” made him widely known to the American public. Having devoted most of his life to his work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the actor, despite numerous requests from producers, never changed his Ukrainian surname to an American-sounding one. During his short Hollywood career, he played in at least 38 films, and his characters were mainly American military personnel. Hodiak died at 41 in Los Angeles of a heart attack. In Ukraine, people learned about the famous American actor of Ukrainian descent after the country gained its independence. At the same time, he has always been and remains a prominent figure in American cinema history.