Oleg Basilashvili

He was born to a family of mixed Russian, Polish, and Georgian origin.[2][3] He is half Russian.[4]

Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili was born on 26 September 1934 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. His father, named Valerian Basilashvili, was a director of the Moscow Polytechnical College. His mother, named Irina Ilyinskaya, was a teacher of linguistics.[5]

His father made up a humorous story that his grandfather had once arrested a dangerous criminal named Dzhugashvili, who was really Joseph Stalin. In reality Basilashvili's maternal grandfather was a Russian Orthodox priest and an architect, who participated in the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. During the World War II, young Oleg Basilashvili was evacuated from Moscow to the Transcaucasian republic of Georgia. There he went to a primary school and lived with his paternal grandfather until the end of World War II.[6]

In 1956, Oleg Basilashvili graduated from the Acting School of the Moscow Art Theatre, where he had studied under Pavel Massalsky. His group was one of the most talented: among his fellows were Yevgeny Yevstigneyev, Mikhail Kozakov and Tatiana Doronina, his first wife. Together with Doronina, Basilashvili joined the troupe at the Bolshoi Drama Theater (BDT) in Leningrad under the leadership of the legendary director Georgy Tovstonogov. Since 1959 Basilashvili has been a permanent member of the troupe at the BDT in St. Petersburg. There his stage partners were such stars as Kirill Lavrov, Tatiana Doronina, Alisa Freindlich, Lyudmila Makarova, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Zinaida Sharko, Valentina Kovel, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Borisov, Pavel Luspekayev, Sergei Yursky, and many other remarkable Russian actors. Basilashvili's most memorable stage works were in the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, Kholstomer based on the eponymous story of Leo Tolstoy, The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, and other classic plays directed by Tovstonogov.

Oleg Basilashvili shot to fame with his roles in films by director Eldar Ryazanov.[7] They collaborated in such popular films as Office Romance (1977), Station for Two (1982), Promised Heaven (1991), and Prediction (1993), which became significant box-office hits. Among Basilashvili's film partners were such actors as Alisa Freindlich, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Nikita Mikhalkov, Nonna Mordyukova, Yevgeny Leonov, and Natalya Gundareva, among many other Soviet/Russian film actors.

His most acclaimed film role was made in collaboration with director Georgiy Daneliya in the remarkable Autumn Marathon (1979). The film is a cross-genre comedy and melodrama with a bitter humor and satire of the Soviet life. In it Basilashvili plays a man in his mid-life crisis, who is torn between two nice women, his wife and his mistress, and all three of them become entangled in the game of lies and personal demands, being at the same time strangled by the stagnant Soviet reality. Basilashvili co-created a memorable acting ensemble with such actors, as Natalya Gundareva, Yevgeny Leonov, Marina Neyolova, and Nikolai Kryuchkov. The film became a Soviet classic, and was awarded at International film festivals in Berlin and San Sebastián.

In the 1980s he appeared in eccentric films by Karen Shakhnazarov. Those were Kurer (Courier) (1987), Gorod Zero (Zero City) (1988), and Sny (Dreams) (1993). Dreams, a wild comedy about Perestroika is especially remarkable: in it Basilashvili tried on several images, those of a noble count from the past, a pornographer and a rock star.

In 2001, Oleg Basilashvili starred in Karen Shakhnazarov's comedy Poisons or the World History of Poisoning (2001). The actor performed both as pensioner Prokhorov and the Pope Alexander VI Borgia in it.

Among the actor's other works of the early 21st century one can mention the role of Prof. Fyodorov in the historical film The Romanovs: An Imperial Family (2000) and General Yepanchin in the TV series The Idiot (2003) directed by Vladimir Bortko after the famous novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

• The Foundling (Подкидыш) as boy on the bike (1940)
• The Seventh Companion (Седьмой спутник) as arrested officer (1967)
• Eternal Call (Вечный зов) as Arnold Lakhnovsky (1973-1983)
• Take Aim (Выбор цели) as Boris Pash (1974)
• A Slave of Love (Раба любви) as Savva Yuzhakov (1976)
• The Days of the Turbins (Дни Турбиных) as Vladimir Talberg
• Office Romance (Служебный роман) as Yuri Samokhvalov (1977)
• Autumn Marathon (Осенний марафон) as Andrey Buzykin (1979)
• Say a Word for the Poor Hussar (...О бедном гусаре замолвите слово) as count Merzlyaev (1981)
• Station for Two (Вокзал для двоих) as Platon Ryabinin (1982)
• Confrontation (Противостояние) as police colonel Kostenko (1985)
• Courier (Курьер) as writer Semyon Kuznetsov(1986)
• Zerograd (Город Зеро) as writer Vasily Chugunov (1988)
• Promised Heaven (Небеса обетованные) as Fedor Yelistratov (1991)
• Prediction (Предсказание) as writer Oleg Goryunov (1993)
• Dreams (Сны) as Count Dmitry Prizorov (1993)
• Heads and Tails (Орёл и решка) as Professor Savitsky (1995)
• The Romanovs: An Imperial Family (Романовы. Венценосная семья) as professor Sergey Fedorov (2000)
• Poisons or the World History of Poisoning (Яды, или Всемирная история отравлений) as Prokhorov / Pope Alexander VI (2001)
• Azazel (Азазель) as general Lavrenty Mizinov (2003)
• The Idiot (Идиот) as general Ivan Yepanchin (2003)
• The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита) as Woland (2005)
• Liquidation (Ликвидация) as esoteric Igor Semenovich (2007)
• Without Borders (Без границ) (2015)

During the 1990s he was a visible political figure in Russia, and was elected the representative of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in 1990. Eventually he became a member of the pro-democratic group of representatives in the Russian Parliament, and a supporter of such politicians as Anatoly Sobchak and the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. He was a strong proponent of returning the original name to the city of Saint Petersburg. He quit politics after 2000, and focused on his acting career.[8]

He condemned the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and signed a public letter condemning the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in support of Ukraine.[9][10]

After a few years of his artistic hiatus, Oleg Basilashvili made a comeback with an impressive performance as Woland in the TV miniseries The Master and Margarita (2005), an adaptation of the eponymous novel of Mikhail Bulgakov by director Vladimir Bortko. In his own words, Basilashvili played the character of Woland in resemblance of an authoritarian and manipulative bureaucrat, alluding to a Soviet-era dictator. Basilashvili created a powerful interplay with a stellar ensemble of actors, such as Aleksandr Abdulov, Kirill Lavrov, Anna Kovalchuk, Aleksandr Galibin, Aleksandr Filippenko, and other notable Russian actors.

• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1979)
• Order "For Merit to the Fatherland":
  • 2nd class (28 October 2019)
  • 3rd class (5 February 2009) - for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art and many years of fruitful activity[11]
  • 4th class (13 February 2004) - for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic theatrical art'[12][13]
• Order of Friendship (17 December 1994) - for services to the people associated with the development of Russian statehood, the achievements in labor, science, culture, arts, strengthening friendship and cooperation between nations[14]
• Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1969)
• People's Artist of the RSFSR (1977)
• People's Artist of the USSR (1984)[15][16]
• Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1979) - for his role as Samokhvalov in the movie Office Romance
• Prize of the Government of St. Petersburg in the field of literature, art and architecture
• Gold Soffit Award for Best Actor (1997)[17]
• Golden Mask Award for Best Actor (2009) - the role of Prince K. in the play "Uncle's Dream"[18]
• International Theatre Prize in 2009 in the category "for his contribution to Russian theatre"
• Honorary Member of Russian Academy of Arts
• Presidential Order of Light (2010, Georgia)
• Order of Honour (2014)[19]