His father, Sergei Petrovich, was an actor who graduated from the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts.

Aleksandr attended a theater workshop at the Palace of Culture and parallel to that he studied piano at a music school.

[1][2] In 1954 he began to study jurisprudence at the Sverdlovsk University of Law, but was expelled from the first semester for skipping lessons.

He then went on to play in A Night Before Christmas, Peace to Him Who Enter and was cast for the title role in Dima Gorin's Career.

In 1973 he once again reunited with Leonid Gaidai to star in the film Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future where he played a scientist named Shurik who invents a time machine.

[7][8][9] He frequently provided voice-overs for foreign and domestic films, and even Donatas Banionis admitted that his dubbing was an improvement over his original acting.

[10][9] He appeared in the television movie Old Songs of the Main Things 2 in 1997 playing an aged Shurik.

[11][8][9] Some analysts say this played a part in the success of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the December 1999 elections as the lack of a social welfare system was frequently blamed for his death.