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Oleg Yankovsky, a charismatic and versatile actor, was one of Russia`s most beloved stage and screen stars. In 1991, he became, together with Alla Pugacheva, the last person to be named a People`s Artist of the USSR. Born into a noble family of Polish stock, son of Life-Guards Semenovsky regiment`s Stabskapitän, Oleg Yankovsky formed an ambition to emulate his brother Rostislav and joined the Saratov Drama Theatre in 1965. In 1973 he moved Moscow`s Lenkom Theater. His film career was launched two years later, when he was cast in two movies about the World War II. Then Oleg excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals. During his remarkably prolific screen career, Yankovsky appeared in many film adaptations of Russian classics, notably My Sweet and Tender Beast (1977) and The Kreutzer Sonata (1987). A leading actor of Mark Zakharov`s Lenkom Theatre since 1975, he starred in the TV versions of the theatre`s productions, An Ordinary Miracle (1978) and The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) being the most notable. Yankovsky was named best actor in a 1984 reader poll by Soviet Screen for his role in "In Love Because He Wants to Be." For his role in Roman Balayan`s Flights in Dreams and Reality (1984) Yankovsky was awarded the USSR State Prize. In 1989 he received the Vasiliev State Prize for his role in "The Kreutzer Sonata." Yakovsky was given the lifetime achievement award at the 1983 All-Union Film Festival. He won the best actor NIKA in 1991, and in the same year was named People`s Artist of the Soviet Union. He has been better known abroad for his parts in Tarkovsky`s movies The Mirror (as the father) and Nostalghia (in the main role).
Since 1993, Yankovsky has been running the Kinotavr Film Festival in Sochi. He continues to receive awards for his work with several Nika Awards from the Russian Film Academy for his directorial debut Come Look At Me (2001) and Valery Todorovsky`s Lyubovnik (2002). Lately, he appeared as Count Pahlen in Poor, Poor Pavel (2004) and as Komarovsky in a TV adaptation of Doctor Zhivago (2006), directed by Aleksandr Proshkin.