Alexander Godunov, the flaxen-haired Bolshoi Ballet dancer who defected from the Soviet Union and crafted a successful acting career in such movies as "Witness" and "Die Hard," was found dead at age 45.
Paramedics called to Godunov's home found him dead on Thursday, sheriff's Sgt. Bob Minutello said. It was not immediately known when he died.Godunov, who had been seeing a physician for an undisclosed condition, was discovered by a nurse who had not heard from Godunov since May 8, Minutello said. The physician will list the death as natural causes, he said.
Godunov came to the United States in 1979 after spending 13 years with the Bolshoi Ballet. He joined the American Ballet Theatre in New York, dancing there for the next three years until he had a falling out with the ABT's artistic director, Mikhail Barysh- nikov, also a Soviet defector.
The two had studied together at the Bolshoi, but an angry Godunov said his old friend "threw me away like a potato peel."
The tall, lean dancer with long, straight hair appeared on his own TV show, "Godunov: The World to Dance In," in 1983-84 before starting his acting career as an Amish farmer in the Harrison Ford thriller "Witness" in 1985.
Godunov was touring the United States with the Bolshoi in August 1979 when he made worldwide news by requesting political asylum, saying he felt artistically restrained in his homeland.
A day later, he pleaded with authorities to let him speak with his wife, Lyudmilla Vlasova, who had boarded a plane for home. U.S. officials grounded the plane for 73 hours, but Vlasova - a Bolshoi soloist - opted to return to the Soviet Union.
It was his only marriage, and they had no children. They were divorced in 1982.
He became an American citizen in 1987.