Background and career
Oleg Nikolayevich Yefremov (Russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Ефре́мов; 1 October 1927 – 24 May 2000) was a Soviet and Russian actor. He was a producer at the Moscow Art Theatre. He received the titles People's Artist of the USSR (1976) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1987).
In 1949, he graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School and became an actor and later a producer of the Central Children Theater, started teaching at School-Studio by himself.
Oleg Yefremov debuted as a film actor in the melodrama The First Echelon in 1955. Since then he was regularly acting in films, and his every appearance on screen turned to be a real event for millions of spectators. Some of his most notable roles were in the films The Alive and the Dead (1964), the melodrama Three Poplars in Plyushchikha (1967), Shine, Shine, My Star (1969), comedies Aybolit-66 (1966), and Beware of the Car (1966).
In 1956, having gathered around himself students and graduates of the School-Studio, both his coevals and pupils, Oleg Yefremov organized the Studio of Young Actors (subsequently — the Moscow famous Sovremennik Theatre and became its first director. Since 1970, he has been an actor and a Chief Producer of the Moscow Art Theatre named after Maxim Gorky. In 1976 the actor became a Professor of Moscow Art Theatre School-Studio.
