Evgenii Leonov

Born Sept. 2, 1926, in Moscow. Soviet actor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1978). Member of the CPSU since 1955.

Leonov graduated from the Moscow Drama Studio in 1947. He joined the Moscow K. S. Stanislavsky Drama Theater in 1948, the Mayakovsky Theater in 1968, and the Lenin Komsomol Theater in 1972. A brilliant and sensitive comedian of great charm, he has also created profoundly dramatic characters.

Leonov’s stage roles have included Peachum in Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Lariosik in Bulgakov’s Days of the Turbins, Creon in Anouilh’s Antigone, Vaniushin in Naidenov’s Vaniushin’s Children, Narokov in A. N. Ostrovskii’s Talents and Admirers, Sancho Panza in Wasserman and Darion’s Man of La Mancha, and the title role in Chekhov’s Ivanov. His motion-picture roles have included Shuleikin in The Striped Voyage, Shibalok in A Tale of the Don, Ivan Prikhod’ko in The Byelorussian Station, Brigadier Potapov in The Premium, and Lamme Gudzak in The Legend of Til.

Leonov received the State Prize of the USSR in 1976.