Papanov, Anatolii

Born Oct. 31, 1922, in Viaz’ma. Soviet actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1973).

Papanov graduated from the department of acting at the State Institute of Theatrical Arts in 1946. In 1949 he became an actor in the Moscow Theater of Satire. He is a vivacious, expressive, and versatile character actor. In addition to comic and highly satirical roles, he has played the parts of a number of positive heroes. His roles have included Pustoslavtsev in Lenskii’s Lev Gurych Sinichkin, Pochesukhin in Mikhalkov’s A Monument to Myself, the Boxer in Khikmet’s Sword of Damocles, the Best Man, the Englishman, and Beelzebub in Mayakovsky’s Bedbug and Mystery-Bouffe, Brodskii in Slavin’s Intervention, Sysoev in Shtein’s A Captive of Time, and the Mayor in Gogol’s Inspector-General.

Papanov’s film roles have included Anton Sevast’ianovich in The Empty Run (1963), Ivanov in Our House (1965), Semen Vasil’evich in Watch Out—Automobiles (1966; English title, An Uncommon Thief), and Dubinskii in Byelorussian Station (1971). His most important film role was Serpilin in The Living and the Dead (1964) and Retribution (1969). Papanov was awarded the Vasil’ev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR in 1966.