Russian Personalities

People well-known in art, sport, film, fashion

Category Archive: Movies and theatre

Oleg Menshikov, Soviet-Russian actor

Oleg Menshikov

Oleg Menshikov, Soviet-Russian actor


Oleg Menshikov is a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, theater director. By the way, he is People’s Artist of Russia (2003), three-time winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1995, 1997, 1999).
Oleg was born on November 8, 1960 in Serpukhov, Moscow region, into the family of a military engineer and a neurologist. Little boy was fond of music and parents bought an old violin. At school he was keen on juggling. Also Menshikov played the piano, his favorite tunes were cancan and melodies from classic operettas. In high school, he began staging performances. The first one had been staged by New Year’s Eve.
Menshikov finished music school. He was a member of an orchestra and could have entered the Music Conservatory. But he didn’t have to choose between music and stage. There was only stage for him. And he took his documents to the Schepkin Drama School, one of the oldest theater institutes in the country.
In 1980 Menshikov made his debut in the drama Wait And Hope by Suren Shakhbazian.
After the role in the film Pokrovsky Gates (1982) Menshikov became a star.
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Mikhail Boyarsky, Soviet-Russian actor

Mikhail Boyarsky

Mikhail Boyarsky, Soviet-Russian actor


Mikhail Boyarsky is a Soviet-Russian actor and singer, Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1984) and People’s Artist of Russia (1990). He is best known for the role of D’Artagnan in the film D’Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993).
Mikhail was born on December 26, 1949 in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) into the family of the theater actors Sergei Boyarsky and Ekaterina Melentieva. The boy’s parents did not want the son to follow in their footsteps. They wanted him to be a musician. Boyarsky studied piano in a music school. After school, the future actor entered the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema. In 1972, after graduation from the institute, he began working in the Lensovet Theatre. In the play Dulcinea Tobosskaya, Mikhail played along with great actress Alisa Freindlich for the first time.
Being a school boy Mikhail starred in the short film Matches Are Not Toys For Children. But his real debut took place in 1974.
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Maxim Galkin – Russian comedian, presenter

Maxim Galkin

Maxim Galkin – Russian comedian, presenter


Maxim Galkin is a popular Russian impersonator, comedian, presenter, actor and singer. By the way, he is Russian Primadonna Alla Pugacheva’s fifth husband.
Maxim was born on June 18, 1976 in Naro-Fominsk district, Moscow. His father Alexander Alexandrovich was a Colonel-General, from 1987 to 1997 he headed the Main Armored Directorate of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense. And his mother Natalie Grigorievna worked at the Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics.
His family moved often because his father was a military man. When Maxim was 3 years old, they lived in Germany, then moved to Odessa, where Maxim graduated from elementary school, and then the family moved to Baikal, Ulan-Ude. Finally, they returned to Moscow.
Maxim was a very talented boy. In school plays Galkin played different roles – the old alcoholic, Ostap Bender, King Solomon, Count Nulin, Don Carlos.
At the age of 13 Maxim saw Gennady Khazanov on TV, who parodied Mikhail Gorbachev. Immediately the boy showed ability to portray the first president of the USSR not worse than the eminent humorist.
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Filipp Kirkorov

Filipp Kirkorov

Filipp Kirkorov


Filipp Kirkorov is a bright and unique personality in Russian show business. He is a Russian singer, producer and actor.
The boy was born on April 30, 1967 in Varna into a family of Bulgarian singer of Armenian descent Bedros Kirkorov and Russian mother Victoria Likhacheva. Already at the age of 5, the future star went on tour with his parents.
In 1984, Filipp entered the Gnessin State Musical College. His creative career began in 1985. Filipp sang a song Alyosha in Bulgarian in the TV program.
In 1987 Kirkorov worked as a musician in Leningrad Music Hall, directed by Ilya Rachlin. Then he met poet Ilya Reznik, who helped Kirkorov to conquer Olympus of Russian show business.
In 1988 Filipp met Alla Pugacheva and received an invitation to participate in her Christmas Meetings. By that time, Kirkorov had already graduated from the School of Music and had performed in Yalta with his first contest. Also he made the first music video for the song Carmen and sang for free in Mongolia for Soviet soldiers.
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Konstantin Khabensky – Russian actor

Konstantin Khabensky

Konstantin Khabensky – Russian actor


Konstantin Khabensky is a Russian actor best known in the West for starring in the films Night Watch and Day Watch as the lead character Anton Gorodetsky. You know, he is Honored Artist of Russia (2006) and People’s Artist of Russia (2012).
Kostya was born on January 11, 1972 in St. Petersburg. His father worked as an engineer and his mother worked as a Math teacher. Konstantin has elder sister Natalia Khabenskaya, who is a singer.
As a child, Kostya did not think about acting career. After school, he studied at the Institute of Aviation Instrumentation. And in 1990, Khabensky entered the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography.
The actor worked in the Satyricon Theatre in Moscow and the Lensovet Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Also he worked as a TV presenter.
In 2002, the actor debuted at the Moscow Art Theater. He played the role of Zilov in the play Duck Hunt. Then the actor received the main roles in the White Guard and Threepenny Opera.
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Ivan Urgant – TV presenter, actor

Ivan Urgant

Ivan Urgant – TV presenter, actor


Ivan Urgant is a Russian TV presenter, actor, musician and showman. Today, he is known as the main presenter of the first Russian night-show Evening Urgant.
The boy was born on April 16, 1978. His grandmother Nina Urgant was a famous actress, the star of the Soviet film Belorussian Station. And his mum and dad are also actors.
A year after the Ivan’s birth, his parents divorced. The future actor lived with his mum and stepfather, actor Dmitry Ladygin. But he also spent much time with his grandmother. Ivan called her simply Nina and sometimes mum.
As a child, Ivan had many hobbies – sport, music and Mikhail Boyarsky’s songs. At the age of 15 the boy went to America as an exchange student.
Future celebrity graduated from the St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, where he had played in Macbeth along with Alisa Freindlikh. Theater, however, did not become Urgant’s main passion. Ivan decided that acting career was not able to feed him and he worked as a waiter, singer and show presenter in nightclubs.
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Most Handsome Soviet Actors

Most Handsome Soviet Actors

Most Handsome Soviet Actors

Most handsome Soviet actors
Here are famous men of the Soviet era, who would be easily called sex symbols today.

Vasily Lanovoi
Vasily was born in Moscow. He showed his acting talent in his school years. Lanovoi attended drama school and performed on the scene. After graduating from drama school he joined the Vakhtangov Theater and works there till today.
He made his debut in the title role in the film Leaving Certificate. In his filmography there are a lot of prominent roles in films, which have become classics of Russian cinema. He played Pavel Korchagin in the eponymous film, Gray in Scarlet Sails, Kuragin in War and Peace, Vronsky in Anna Karenina, Ivan Barabas in Officers and many more heroes. In total, there are more than 60 films in his filmography and the actor does not stop acting. One of his latest roles to date was in the film The Three Musketeers, in which he played Cardinal Richelieu.
Lanovoi is married to actress Irina Kupchenko. They have two sons, one of whom died tragically last year.
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