Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili is a famous theater and film actor of Georgian-Polish descent, People's Artist of the USSR, who has millions of fans around the world.
Childhood
Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili was born on September 26, 1934 in Moscow.
His father, Valerian Basilashvili, was the director of the Moscow Polytechnic College, and his mother taught foreign languages and was one of the prominent linguists of the USSR.
Valerian Noshrevanovich composed a legend that his grandfather was a colonel in the tsarist army, married a Polish lady, and began to work as a policeman. He also liked to tell friends and acquaintances that his grandfather had once arrested a dangerous criminal named Dzhugashvili, who was actually Joseph Stalin. Basilashvili’s grandfather was actually a Russian Orthodox priest and architect who participated in the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
During World War II, the young Oleg Basilashvili was evacuated from Moscow to Georgia. There, young Basilashvili lived with his paternal grandfather until the end of World War II and received primary education.
Actor career
In 1956, Oleg Basilashvili graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, his mentor was Pavel Massalsky. His group was one of the most talented: among his classmates were Evgeny Evstigneev, Mikhail Kozakov and Tatyana Doronina, his first wife. After graduation, he and his wife joined the troupe of the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) under the guidance of the legendary director Georgy Tovstonogov. Since 1959, Basilashvili is one of the leading actors of the BDT. His partners on the stage were such stars as Kirill Lavrov, Tatyana Doronina, Alisa Freindlikh, Lyudmila Makarova, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Zinaida Sharko, Valentina Kovel, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Borisov, Pavel Lupsekaev, Sergey Yursky, and many other wonderful Russian actors.
