Oleg Yankovsky

Date of Birth: 23.02.1944

Oleg was born into a family of a former staff captain of the Semenovsky Life Guards Regiment, who came from Polish noble families. Oleg spent his childhood in the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan. Over time, the Yankovskys moved to Saratov. There, Oleg made his theater debut at the age of 14, replacing a sick actress in the minor role of a boy in the play 'The Drummer'.

After the films 'Shield and Sword' and 'Two to Hell with the Bosses' in 1968, Oleg Yankovsky became famous. Moreover, he began to receive significant roles in theater. During these years, Oleg played serious roles in both classical ('Talents and Admirers', 'A Glass of Water') and modern ('The Stranger') repertoire. Oleg achieved the greatest success in the role of Prince Myshkin (in the play 'The Idiot').

In 1973, Oleg Yankovsky joined the Moscow Leninist Theater ('Lenkom'), where he quickly became one of the leading actors. His best performances include: 'Autograd-XXI', 'The Boy from Our Town', 'Revolutionary Etude', 'Dictatorship of Conscience', 'Optimistic Tragedy', 'The Seagull', 'Barbarian and Heretic', 'Hamlet'.

One of Oleg Yankovsky's most notable works in the mid-1970s was the role of the father in Andrei Tarkovsky's film 'The Mirror'. In 1983, Andrei Tarkovsky invited Oleg Yankovsky again to his film - the actor played the writer Gorchakov in the drama 'Nostalghia'.

In the 1970s, Oleg Yankovsky acted a lot. His acting skills allowed him to appear organically in various film roles: as a party functionary ('The Price', 1974, 'Feedback', 1978), as Decembrist Konstantin Ryleyev ('The Star of Enchanting Happiness', 1975), as an incorrigible, prickly person ('Strange Letters', 1976, 'A Sweet Woman', 1977) or conversely as a characterless, weak man ('A Word of Defense', 1977, 'Turning Point', 1979).

Oleg's creative peaks as a film actor were the 1980s, 'sanctified' by collaboration with Mark Zakharov ('An Ordinary Miracle', 'The Real Münchhausen', 'The House that Swift Built', 'To Kill a Dragon'). The brilliant roles in the films of Roman Balayan should also be mentioned, such as 'Flights in a Dream and Reality' (1983, State Prize of the USSR for 1987), 'The Kiss' (1983), 'Protect Me, My Talisman' (1987), 'Philer' (1988), as well as in the socio-cultural drama by Tatiana Lioznova 'We, the signatories' (1981) and in the romance by Sergei Mikaelyan 'In Love by One's Own Wish' (1982).

At the beginning of the 1990s, Oleg Yankovsky played diverse roles in Georgi Daneliya's tragicomedy 'The Pass' (1990) and in Karen Shakhnazarov's historical psychological drama 'Tsar-murderer'. In the following years, Oleg Yankovsky rarely filmed. There were interesting roles in movies like 'Fateful Eggs' (1995), 'First Love' (1995), 'The Inspector' (1996). But the actor himself admitted that he gained no satisfaction from any of his recent works.

In 2000, Oleg Yankovsky shot his first film, in which he played one of the main roles - 'Come, Look at Me'. Two years later he appeared in Valery Todorovsky's film 'The Lover'. In 2008 - in Roman Balayan's film 'Paradise Birds'. One of the last films he participated in was the film 'The Style Icons' by Todorovsky Jr., which received the Russian Film Prize 'Nika'.

Oleg Yankovsky - People's Artist of the USSR (1991), two-time laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1987), two-time laureate of the Russian State Prize. In 2009, the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, presented the outstanding actor with the Order 'For Services to the Fatherland' II class.

21.05.2009