He performed in both dramatic and comedy roles; his expressive acting and wide range of emotions soon turned him into one of the leading and most respected actors.

Among his notable roles were Nozdryov from Dead Souls, Chatsky from Woe from Wit, Count Almaviva from The Marriage of Figaro, Vassily Solyony from Three Sisters and others.

In 1927 he performed his first serious roles in two historical-revolution films: Kastus Kalinovskiy and October: Ten Days That Shook the World.

During the 1930s he played Dubrovsky in the film version of Alexander Pushkin's novel Dubrovsky and Dmitry Pozharsky in the Minin and Pozharsky historical epic (he was awarded his first Stalin Prize for this role), although his most famous performance of that time was Mikhail Bocharov in the Baltic Deputy biographical movie based on the life of Kliment Timiryazev (portrayed by Nikolay Cherkasov).

[4] Their son Vasily Livanov also became a popular Russian actor, screenwriter, director of live action and animated movies.