Veniamin Smekhov
He refused the title of People's Artist of Russia,[1] which was offered to him on his 70th birthday.
[2] Smekhov has long worked in the Moscow Taganka Theatre where his roles included Woland in a stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.
In film, he is best known and loved for the role of Athos in a Russian version of D'Artagnan and Three Musketeers (1978) and its sequels (1992, 1993).
From 1947 to 1957 he was a student at School № 235 on Pal'chikov Lane where he was a part of the Palace of Pioneers drama club.
Struchkova led the club and Rolan Bykov worked with the students.
In 1961 Veniamin graduated from acting school and was sent to the Kuybiyshevsky Drama Theatre where he worked for one year.
From 1985 to 1987 Veniamin worked in the Sovremennik Theatre where he, along with Leonid Filatov and Vitaly Shapovalov, fled after Lyubimov's expulsion from the Soviet Union.
In 1967 he began working as a freelance television director at Gostelradio USSR, the main producer of literary-drama programs.
In 1990 he began directing theatre performances, operas and made-for-television films in Russia and abroad, and he taught acting for several years in American universities.
In America Veniamin released a series of compact disks, The Library of Russian Classics, in 1998.
In 2011 Veniamin returned to the Taganka Theatre as a guest actor and director.
He reprised the role of Woland in Master and Margarita on two occasions that included a dedication performance in memory of actor Vsevolod Sobolev and the 50th anniversary of the Taganka Theatre.
He lives in Moscow and very frequently tours with his performances and evenings of poetry.
Veniamin also makes poetic programs and documentary films for television.
Veniamin has participated in theatrical online readings of the works of Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Mikhail Bulgakov, including Chekhov Is Alive (25 September 2015), War and Peace.
1993 The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years Later - Athos 17.
2013 Finding a Husband In the Big City - Alexander Gordeev, Lisa's Father 28.
1983 - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - Mustafa (he was also the author of the script and song lyrics) 7.
1984 - The Life and Books of Alexander Green - Visitor, Til's, Bill, Read-Headed Young Man, Guard 9.
2013 - Movie Star Between the Hammer and Sickle (documentary film about Marina Ladiynina) 9.
2015 - The Last Poet of the Great War (documentary film about Ion Degen) 11.
Searching For Lost Time (documentary film about Boris Zaborov) 12.
2013 - Movie Star Between the Hammer and Sickle (documentary film about Marina Ladiynina) 7.
2015 - The Last Poet of the Great War (documentary film about Ion Degen) 10.
2008 - Hostages of the Future (documentary film about David Burlyuk) - behind the scenes text 10.
2009 - A Room and a Half, Or Sentimental Travels to the Homeland (documentary film) - text from the author 11.
2009 - Great Novgorod - Motherland of Russia (documentary film) - behind the scenes text 12.
2011 - Participated in the voice work for the album, Blood Holiday, of the group The King and the Joker 14.
2012 - Participated in the voice work for the album, On the Edge, of the group The King and the Joker 15.
2017 - The Death of Stalin - Vyacheslav Molotov (dubbing was not utilized) Animation Voice Artist 1.
