[2][3] Boris Kuzmich Novikov was born on 13 July 1925 in a family of laborers at the station Ryazhsk-1, Ryazan Oblast.

In 1972, due to diabetic illness, he stopped playing in theatre and only worked in film.

Novikov had leading roles in the film adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's Shot, in the comedy Seven Old Men and a Girl, historical film The Shadows Fade at Noon, drama Father and Son, comedy The Talking Monkey.

The last picture in which Boris Novikov starred was the adventure film The Return of the Battleship, released in the year of his death.

His wife was Nadezhda Antonovna Klimovich (died in 2008), an actress of the Moscow Youth Theater.