Batalov joined the Moscow Art Theatre in 1953 but left three years later to concentrate on his career in film.

He appeared mostly in film adaptations of Russian classics, including Anton Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog (1960) and Bulgakov's The Flight (1970).

After much hesitation, Batalov agreed to play his part in the movie, for which he won the USSR State Prize.

As one character says in the picnic scene: "Seventy percent of my doctorate was due to Gosha's mechanical genius".

[6][7] Batalov died on 15 June 2017 in Moscow from complications of a fall, which resulted in a hip fracture, at the age of 88.