Famous actor and director Oleg Tabakov died, RIA Novodti reports. Last year the Artistic Director of The Moscow Art Theater n. A. Chekhov turned 82 years old. He was heading the theater for 18 years and played there until his recent terminal illness.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended deep condolences to the actor's family.
Born in the Volga River city of Saratov, Tabakov went through the hard World War 2 times. A monument to the great actor was raised in Saratov several years ago. After the WW2 he studied at The Moscow Theater School. He has joined the Sovremennik Theater in 1957. Tabakov was continuously performing in both classical and modern productions. Comic roles made hime extremely popular. His cartoon character Cat Matroskin from The Vacation in Prostokvashino became one of the significant protagonists for children of the Brezhnev epoch. Interestingly, The Vacation in Prostokvashino continues to be widely known nowadays, and Tabakov's character lines are widely quoted.
Apart of being an awesome comic, he's played charismatic roles in Clear Skies, War and Peace, popular television series Seventeen Instants of Spring, and D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers, Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears, and many other films.
Tabakov was a very prolific actor but that was not enough. He started directing, and in the end of 1970s he's founded his own theater in closed circles called 'Tabakerka' (The Snuff Box). He has also taught acting at his Alma Mater for more than a decade.
Being a role model for his colleagues, students and a wide public, Tabakov will rest in the memory of Russian people for many generations.
Russkiy Mir
