[1] Between 1931 and 1935 Nazvanov studied acting at the Drama Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre.

[2][3] In 1957 he was again invited to join the Art Theater, which, however, left in 1960 and became actor in the Mosfilm-studio.

As a stage actor he played Trigorin in The Seagull, Krechinsky in Krechinsky's Wedding, Ripafratta in The Mistress of the Inn, Robert Chiltern in An Ideal Husband, and Stiva Oblonsky in Anna Karenina.

Sergei Eisenstein invited him to the role of Andrey Kurbsky in Ivan the Terrible.

[4] He collaborated also with such famous directors as Grigori Aleksandrov (Encounter at the Elbe, The Composer Glinka), Vsevolod Pudovkin (Zhukovsky), Mikhail Romm (The Russian Question, Attack from the Sea), Grigori Kozintsev (Belinsky, Hamlet).