Zalman Afroimovich Khrapinovich[a] (21 September 1916 – 18 November 1996), known by the pseudonym Zinovy Yefimovich Gerdt,[b] was a Soviet and Russian actor.

[3] Gerdt was born Zalman Afroimovich Khrapinovich on 21 September 1916 in the city of Sebezh in the Pskov Oblast.

[4] His father Afroim Yakovlevich Khrapinovich worked for some time in a fabrics shop as a clerk, and later as a salesman.

[1][2] His father died quite early, his mother stayed with four children: two boys and two girls, of which Zinovy was the youngest.

He was enlisted as a senior lieutenant of a field engineering division and suffered a serious leg wound near Belgorod in February 1943.

[1][2] In the Central Puppet Theater under the leadership of Sergei Obraztsov, Gerdt was also busy in the plays Devil's Mill, Wish Upon a Pike, The Night Before Christmas, Divine Comedy, etc.

[1][2] In the 1960s, he appeared in the films Michel and Mishutka (1961), Returned Music (1964), Want-Believe, Do not Want ... (1964), The Year As Life (1965), Green Light (1965), City of Masters (1965), Avdotya Pavlovna (1966), July Rain (1966), At the Thirteenth Hour of the Night (1968), Zigzag of Success (1969) and others.

[1][2] In the 1970s, new films appeared with the participation of Gerdt: Taymyr Calls You (1970), Urban Romance (1970), As Ilf and Petrov rode a tram (1971), Stoves of the Shop (1972), Carnival (1972), The Car, the Violin and the Dog Spot (1974), The Straw Hat (1974), The Key without the Right to Transfer (1976), The Draw (1976), Walking through the Flours (1974) ), The Twelve Chairs (1977), The Life of Beethoven (1978), Three Men in a Boat (1979), The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979).

[1][2] In the 1980s and 1990s, the actor continued to act actively in films: Adam marries Eve (1980), Say a Word for the Poor Hussar (1980), Fairy tales... fairy tales... fairy tales of the old Arbat (1982), I'll wait for you (1982), Boys (1983), Military field novel (1983), Mary Poppins, Goodbye (1989), The Bindly and the King (1989), Intergirl (1989), The Inferno and the King (1989), Childhood Themes (1991), Lost in Siberia (1990), I am Ivan, you are Abram (1993), Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (1994), Simple-minded (1994), Inspector (1996) and others.

[1][2] A monument in Sebezh by sculptor Oleg Yershov in honor of Zinovy Gerdt was revealed to the public in 2011.

was published, in which Gerdt is remembered by Eldar Ryazanov, Eduard Uspensky, Pyotr Todorovsky, Arkady Arkanov, Grigori Gorin, Viktor Shenderovich and others.