In 1929, he failed the entrance exams at the Russian State University of Agriculture in Moscow and started working in a textile factory in Kostroma.
After the entry into war of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Rozov joined the 8th National Division Popular militia in the Krasnopresnenskaya district.
He left hospital in mid-1942, and led a propaganda group at the front; at the same time, he took correspondence courses at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
Returning to Moscow, he worked as an actor and director at the Theatre of the Central House of Railway Culture.
He received the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival "for his humanism, his unity and his high artistic quality".