Oleg Tabakov
Tabakov in 2015
Born	Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov (1935-08-17)17 August 1935 Saratov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	12 March 2018(2018-03-12) (aged 82) Moscow, Russia
Occupation(s)	Actor, theatre director, pedagogue
Years active	1956–2018
Title	People's Artist of the USSR (1988)
Spouses	Lyudmila Krylova ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1994)​ Marina Zudina ​ ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	Anton Aleksandra Pavel Maria
Awards	Full cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" Legion of Honour (Officier) Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( 3rd Class) Order of the Red Banner of Labour Order of the Badge of Honour Order of Friendship of Peoples State Prize of the Russian Federation USSR State Prize
Website	tabakov.ru

Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov (Russian: Олег Павлович Табаков; 17 August 1935 – 12 March 2018) was a Soviet and Russian actor and the Artistic Director of the Moscow Art Theatre. People's Artist of the USSR (1988).^[1]

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.

In 1992-2008, Tabakov was a member of the commission on state awards under the President of the Russian Federation.

Tabakov was a supporter of the United Russia party.^[8]

In 2001, Tabakov was appointed a member of the board of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.^[9]

During the 2012 Russian presidential election, Tabakov was registered as a "Trusted Representative" (Доверенное Лицо) of Vladimir Putin.^[10][11] In July 2012, by Putin’s Decree, Tabakov was included in the Council for Public Television.^[12]

In March 2014, Tabakov signed a letter to President Putin in support of the annexation of Crimea.^[13][14][15] 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."^[16] In December 2015, Tabakov was banned from entering Ukraine.^[14]

In July 2015, Tabakov made comments to the Ren-TV channel regarding the list of 117 Russian artists who may pose a threat to the national security of Ukraine,^[17] prepared by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. He made a number of statements about Ukrainians advocating for a blacklist,^[18] saying that they

are not very enlightened. It's like my grandmother sometimes said: "Don't bother with them, these are dark and illiterate people." The trouble is that normal people will suffer from the fact that normal information does not reach them... I feel sorry for them. They are in some sense wretched.^[18]

In the same comments, Tabakov stated that "at all times, their best times, their brightest representatives of the intelligentsia were somewhere in second and third positions after the Russians."^[14][18] He was accused of xenophobia and chauvinism.^[18][19]

• 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)^[20]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2009)

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