Nikolay Smorchkov was born on 9 August 1930 in the village of Ivankovo, Gavrilovo-Posadsky District, in a large peasant family named Gavril Ivanovich and Pelageya Matveyevna.

[2] In 1933, fleeing Collectivization, the family moved to the village of Orgtrud, which was not far from Vladimir (now the district of the city).

After graduation Smorchkov came to Moscow and entered the VGIK (course of Sergei Gerasimov and Tamara Makarova), where he had to deal specially with removing his pronounced accent.

[3] While still in his second year in 1951, he played his first role in Gerasimov's film The Village Doctor.

[1][4] Smorchkov died on 7 March 2021 from COVID-19 amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia.