Oleg Tabakov

Tabakov was born in Saratov into a family of doctors.[2] His paternal great-grandfather, Ivan Ivanovich Utin, came from serfs and was raised in a wealthy peasant family under the Tabakov surname. His grandfather, Kondratiy Tabakov, worked as a locksmith in Saratov where he built himself a house and married a local commoner Anna Konstantinovna Matveeva. Oleg's father, Pavel Kondratievich Tabakov, worked at the State Regional Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology "Microbe" in Saratov.[3]

His maternal grandfather, Andrei Frantzevich Piontkovsky, was a Polish nobleman who owned lands in the Podolia Governorate and married a local villager, Olga Terentievna (surname unknown) of Ukrainian origin.[4] Oleg's mother, Maria Andreevna Berezovskaya (née Piontkovskaya), was a radiologist. She had a daughter Mirra from the previous marriage to Gugo Goldstern, a high-ranking Soviet functionary and intelligence officer killed in the line of duty.[3][5]

During the Great Patriotic War, Oleg's father volunteered for the frontline and served aboard a hospital train while his mother was evacuated to Ural along with children where she also worked in a military hospital. After the war, the parents separated.[3][6]

Tabakov studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School. Upon graduating, he became one of the founding fathers of the Sovremennik Theatre. He administrated the Sovremennik until 1982, when he moved to the Moscow Art Theatre, where he has played Molière and Salieri for over 20 years. In 1986, Tabakov persuaded his students to form the Tabakov Studio attached to the Moscow Art Theatre. Among those who studied at the studio were Russian actors Yevgeny Mironov, Sergey Bezrukov, Vladimir Mashkov, Andrey Smolyakov and Alexandre Marine, and American actor Jon Bernthal.[7]

Tabakov's movie career paralleled the theatrical. He was featured in Grigori Chukhrai's Clear Skies (1961), Sergei Bondarchuk's War and Peace (1966–67), TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973) and D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978), the Academy Award-winning Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears (1980), Nikita Mikhalkov's Oblomov (1981) and Dark Eyes (1986), and the mock red western A Man from the Boulevard des Capuchines (1987).

Tabakov has lent his distinctive, purr-like voice to a number of animated characters, including the talking cat Matroskin in Three from Prostokvashino and its sequels. After the Matroskin role, he dubbed the character of Garfield into Russian in the feature film Garfield and its sequel.

During the 2012 Russian presidential election, Tabakov was registered as a "Trusted Representative" (Доверенное Лицо) of Vladimir Putin.[8]

In March 2014, he signed a letter in support of the position of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.[9] In September 2014, Tabakov claimed that Crimea has no relation to Ukraine and upbraided Ukrainians for discussing it: "But all happened fairly. If our Ukrainian brothers were smarter, they would not discuss that topic. They had to say: "Forgive us for God's sake! We had encroached the gravy train." Because Crimea has no relation to dependent, nor independent Ukraine."[10] Crimea is, since March 2014, under dispute by Russia and Ukraine.[11]

A 2019 stamp of Russia featuring Tabakov and his Order of Merit for the Fatherland

Theater of Oleg Tabakov in Malaya Sukharevskaya Square in Moscow.

• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland";
  • 1st class (17 August 2010) – for outstanding contributions to the development of domestic theatrical art and many years of creative activity
  • 2nd class (17 August 2005) – for outstanding contribution to the development of theatrical art, and many years of creative activity
  • 3rd class (23 October 1998) – for many years of fruitful work in the field of theatrical art, and in connection with the 100th anniversary of the Moscow Art Theatre
  • 4th class (29 June 2015)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (10 November 1993) – for his great personal contribution to the development of theatrical art, and training qualified personnel for theatre and film
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (USSR, 1982)
• Order of the Badge of Honour (USSR, 1967)
• USSR State Prize (1967)
• State Prize of the Russian Federation (1997)
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1969)
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1977)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1988)
• Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts (8 October 2008)
• Golden Mask Award (1995)
• Seagull Theatre Prize
• Crystal Turandot Award
• Russian Presidential Prize for Literature and the Arts (2003)
• Moscow Komsomol Prize (1967)
• Moscow Mayor's Award for Literature and the Arts (1997)
• Diploma of the Moscow City Duma (2008)
• Medal "For Valiant Labour" (Tatarstan, 2010)
• Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mordovia (2010), Saratov Oblast (2010), City of Saratov (2003)
• Order "Key of Friendship" (Kemerovo Oblast, 2010)
• Medal "For Faith and Good" (Kemerovo Oblast, 2011)
• Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd class (Estonia, 2005)
• Officer of the Legion of Honor (France, 2013)[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oleg Tabakov.

• Oleg Tabakov at IMDb
• Oleg Tabakov at Find a Grave
• Tabakov Theatre in Moscow
• Tabakov's webpage on the website of the Moscow Art Theatre
• Complete filmography
• Tabakov Biography on Lifeactor.ru