[1] He spent his childhood in the Moscow suburbs, near Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad), with his grandparents, and from the age of four rode horses and mastered crafts.

He came to fame appearing in the 1970s television series Born by the Revolution [ru][4][5] about the formation of the Soviet militia and its fight against crime in the 1920s.

when he fell from a horse at full gallop, which injured his hip and caused a compression fracture of the spine.

[1] From 1994 to 2001, Zharikov had an affair with journalist Tatyana Sekridova (born 1960), who in 1995 gave birth to his son Sergei and daughter Katya.

After Sekridova went public with their relationship (reportedly having discovered the existence of a third woman in his life), Zharikov ended it,[3] and Gvozdikova forgave her husband.