The life of the notorious Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin has been the subject of a variety of media since his death in 1916.
Films Historical fiction Films that aim to be historically accurate:
Within nine months of Rasputin's murder, two low budget silent films about Rasputin were released in September 1917. Producer-director Herbert Brenon released The Fall of the Romanoffs, while producer William A. Brady released Rasputin, the Black Monk. Rasputin was played by Edward Connelly in the former and Montagu Love in the latter. Rasputin, a 1917 silent film released by Worldart Films and directed by Max Neufield. Re-released in 1929 as Rasputin, the Holy Sinner. Rasputin, a 1929 silent film with synchronised sound effects. Produced by Momento Film Company and directed by Nikolai Larin. The titular character portrayed by Gregori Chmara. Rasputin, The Holy Sinner, a 1928 German film produced and directed by Martin Berger; Rasputin was played by Nikolai Malikoff. Rasputin, Dämon der Frauen, a 1932 German film; Rasputin was played by Conrad Veidt. Rasputin and the Empress, 1932 MGM production directed by Richard Boleslawski; Rasputin was played by Lionel Barrymore. La Tragédie impériale, a 1938 film directed by Marcel L'Herbier and based on the book by Alfred Neumann. Rasputin was played by Harry Baur. Raspoutine, a 1953 French film directed by Georges Combret; never released in the United States or England. Rasputin was played by Pierre Brasseur. The Night They Killed Rasputin, a 1960 film; Rasputin was played by Edmund Purdom. J'ai tué Raspoutine, a 1967 film directed by Robert Hossein, featuring an interview with the real Prince Felix Yussupov; Rasputin was played by Gert Fröbe. Nicholas and Alexandra, a 1971 epic British film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner; Rasputin was played by Tom Baker, who was nominated for two Golden Globes. Agony, finished in 1975 by filmmaker Elem Klimov. The road to screening took him nine years and many rewrites. The final edit was not released in the USSR until 1985, censored partly because of its orgy scenes and partly its sympathetic portrait of Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, a 1996 HBO TV film; Rasputin was played by Alan Rickman, who won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his portrayal. Rasputin, a 2011 Italian film; Rasputin was played by Francesco Cabras. Raspoutine, a 2011 French-Russian TV film directed by Josée Dayan; Rasputin was played by Gérard Depardieu, who has said that it had long been his dream to play the character
Fantastical fiction Films that portray Rasputin with magic powers or in an obviously fictional manner:
Rasputin the Mad Monk, a 1966 Hammer film; Rasputin was played by Christopher Lee and is portrayed as a literal monk expelled from his monastery. Rasputin is the primary antagonist of the 1997 animated film Anastasia. He is portrayed as a sorcerer who sold his soul for dark powers. After drowning in the Neva River, he returned to life in order to complete a curse he placed on the Romanovs by killing the last of the royal family, Anastasia. He is accompanied by an albino bat named Bartok. Rasputin is voiced by Christopher Lloyd, while Jim Cummings performs his singing voice. Rasputin, played by Karel Roden, is the main antagonist of the 2004 film Hellboy, based on the comics series of the same name (see Comics, below). After his assassination in 1916, he became an servant of the Ogdru Jahad, an eldritch embodiment of chaos and evil, and repeatedly returns to life to free his imprisoned master. He is the one who summons Hellboy during World War II. Another version of Rasputin appears in the 2019 Hellboy reboot. Again, he is a magician responsible for summoning Hellboy to Earth. Rasputin's legacy is a major plot element in the 1999 anime film Case Closed: The Last Wizard of the Century. The King's Man, a 2021 Matthew Vaughn film, features Rasputin as a secondary antagonist, played by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans. He is an agent for an international conspiracy to keep Britain, Germany, and Russia at war.
Characters based on Rasputin The 1972 British-Spanish film Horror Express (Spanish: Pánico en el Transiberiano, lit. "Panic on the Trans-Siberian"), directed by Eugenio Martín and starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas, with Argentine actor Alberto de Mendoza also starring as a version of Rasputin named Father Pujardov, a mystical monk who travels on train as the adviser of a Russian Tsar (who is based on Nicholas II). The 1980 Australian film Harlequin rehashes Rasputin's story in a contemporary setting; Robert Powell played the Rasputin character, a mysterious faith healer called Gregory Wolfe. The characters corresponding to Nicholas II and Alexandra Fyodorovna were called Nick and Sandra Rast ('Rast' being 'Tsar' backwards). The Russian villain of the stop-motion animated series The New Adventures of Pinocchio was named after Rasputin and bears a similar appearance.
Television
Historical fiction "The Death of Rasputin", an episode of the CBS series You Are There, airing 2 May 1954; Rasputin is portrayed by Rod Steiger. Fall of Eagles, a 1974 BBC miniseries; Rasputin was played by Michael Aldridge Grigoriy R. (Григорий Р.) is a Russian biographical 2014 TV miniseries which chronicles the life of Grigori Rasputin until his death. Rasputin is portrayed by Vladimir Mashkov. In the 2019 Netflix mini-series The Last Czars, Rasputin is portrayed by Ben Cartwright.
Science fiction and fantasy In Season 3, Episode 12 ("Strings") of the Canadian vampire drama Forever Knight, Nick has a flashback which reveals his friendship with Emperor Nicholas II. Rasputin is shown to have significant influence over Empress Alexandra, because she believes he can cure her son Alexei. It is implied that Alexei is actually suffering from vampirism, and Rasputin himself is shown to be a newly turned vampire created by LaCroix. LaCroix turns him to enjoy the irony of a demonized holy man, (thus implying that Rasputin was actually a sage), and to control the Russian empire by controlling Rasputin (who is bound to him through the sire bond). However, Rasputin resists LaCroix's control so LaCroix has him shot and thrown into a river, even though it will not kill Rasputin, in order to ignite a "revolution". Rasputin comes back and tries to kill the emperor in order to gain control of Russia, but Nick stakes him, thus killing him permanently. In a 2001 episode on the daytime drama Passions, the witch Tabitha Lenox has a flashback to 1916 Imperial Russia where Rasputin is established as her love interest. Tabitha gives Rasputin advice of how to bring down the imperial family, and also gives him the idea to spare one certain member to which he agrees. Rasputin was referred to in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row, implying that Rasputin was a demon with mind-controlling powers which resided on his eyes. A 5th-season episode of the show also has a scene where Buffy debates with a history professor over whether Rasputin had genuinely been killed. A fifth season episode of Angel featured a vampire named Nostroyev who claimed to have been Rasputin's lover. In The Crow: Stairway to Heaven episode "Never Say Die", Rasputin's spirit is summoned, leading to a conflict with the show's protagonist, Eric Draven. In season 4, episode 6 ("And the Grave of Time") of the TNT show The Librarians, Col. Baird and Nicole Noone chase down a gang of grave robbers led by an immortal Grigori Rasputin. In season 5, episode 1 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Rasputin (Michael Eklund) is revealed to be one of the villainous historical figures resurrected by the demon Astra. He is depicted as having magical powers, as well as immortality as a result of his resurrection. His plans to assassinate the royal family is thwarted when Atom shrinks down, flies into his stomach, and re-enlarges, blowing apart his body and preventing it from reforming. In the 2022 Doctor Who special "The Power of the Doctor", Sacha Dhawan portrays The Master as having become Grigori Rasputin in 1916 Russia, where he allies with his CyberMasters and the Daleks.
Comedy An episode of Saturday Night Live had a sketch titled "The Death of Rasputin," in which he is portrayed by John Belushi. In the cartoon The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, he appears with Attila the Hun and Abraham Lincoln to give Mandy advice after she summons spirits from Grim's skull. He is shown with a sword through his head, although no accounts of Rasputin's death involve a sword. Rasputin appears in the Animaniacs episode "Nothing But The Tooth", voiced by John Glover. In season 5, episode 2 ("Dangerous Minds") of the Comedy Central show Drunk History, Jerry O'Connell portrays Rasputin. Chris Romano comically narrates the life and assassination of Rasputin. In History of the World, Part II, Johnny Knoxville plays Rasputin in a series of sketches called Jackrasp, a parody of the Jackass franchise in which Knoxville stars. Fellow Jackass performers Preston Lacy, Chris Pontius, and Jason Acuña perform Jackass-style stunts to assassinate Rasputin.
Other references In season 3, episode 11 ("Pine Barrens") of The Sopranos, Paulie Walnuts compares a Russian mob figure to Rasputin after he evades them in the Pine Barrens, despite apparently being shot in the head. In the second season of G.I. Joe A Real American Hero, Cobra grows tired of failures and losses caused by Cobra Commander and genetically engineers a new leader--Serpentor—using the DNA of various warlords, generals, and despicable historical figures. One of Serpentor's "ancestors" was said to have been Grigori Rasputin. This is mentioned in "My Favorite Things" (season 2, episode 19), where the story involves Serpentor gaining additional powers from his proximity to artifacts once owned by his "ancestors", such as a portrait of Rasputin dating back to his time with Tsar Nicholas II. Serpentor was voiced by Richard Gautier. In the Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown", Rasputin is one of the rogue wax droids. The Abraham Lincoln wax droid mistakenly refers to him as "Rice-puddin'" due to his accent, describing Rasputin as "the most hated, loathed, and despised man of his era". In the Smallville episode "Run", Lex purchases a manuscript that was said to be the only thing that was hanging in Rasputin's chamber while he was studying at the Grigori monastery. He believed it would lead him to unimaginable power. Legend has it in the show's universe that Rasputin would stare at it for days at a time hoping to penetrate its secrets. The border designs of the manuscript say, in Kryptonian, "look deeper", and when Clark uses his X-ray vision, he sees that there is a map which leads to one of the three stones of power, which he later acquires and uses to assemble the Fortress of Solitude. In an episode of M*A*S*H, Trapper mentions to Radar that "Rasputin" (Hawkeye) "swallowed a whole drug store," and didn't fall asleep (as Trapper was trying to sedate Hawkeye). In the Seinfeld episode "The Suicide", Jerry asks Elaine if naming a child "Rasputin" would have a negative effect on the child. At the end of the episode, George mentions that he helped a fortune teller deliver her child, and when Jerry asks what name was given to the baby, he replied, "You won't believe it...Rasputin." In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, the antagonist's canine companion is called Rasputin. In the 2011 Doctor Who episode "Let's Kill Hitler", one of the Teselecta crew—who travel through time to punish those who did not suffer for their crimes when alive—says that in their previous assignment they copied Rasputin but got the skin tone green. Warehouse 13 featured his prayer rope, used to conjure images of the dead. Apparently after being successfully assassinated the first time, his followers used it to make it seem like he had cheated death.