With the East European accent of his birth still evident in his speech, Elya Baskin has usually been cast to type in a wide variety of roles, from Russian spy to a naturalized American cop. Born in Riga, Latvia, he attended Moscow's prestigious Theatre and Variety Arts College and was subsequently accepted at the Moscow Comedy Theatre where he won a Festival of Young Actors Award. Although he had every reason to assume his career as a performer was assured, life in the Soviet Union for an artist of Jewish descent had its pitfalls. In 1976 when the emigration rules were relaxed, Baskin was
