Actor Bohdan Stupka celebrates his 70th birthday

Ukrainian actor Bohdan Stupka celebrated his 70th birthday with a grand concert on Oct. 7.

Stupka is a Soviet and Ukrainian film and theater star. His first movie "Peace for Huts, War For Palaces" was released in 1970, when the actor was 29. During his 40-year career, Stupka played in 104 movies.

In Ivana Franka theater, more than a thousand guests gathered to congratulate their idol. He greeted them singing Louis Armstrong's "Let My People Go" and accompanying himself on the drums. Stupka's son Ostap and grandson Dmytro, also actors, staged a short play about Bohdan's life.

A retrospective of Stupka's movies was shown a week before the grand concert. Seven movies representing several decades of Stupka's career were chosen by the actor himself.

"Not all of my movies are worthy, in some of them I was engaged in real art, but some roles were just money making," Stupka confessed at the opening. "When somebody asks me why did I take part in a poor movie, I answer that I would gladly abandon the part if somebody paid me for doing so. I had to earn a living, you know."