Leonid Filatov

Leonid Filatov was born on December 24, 1946, in Kazan, Tatarstan, Soviet Union (now Kazan, Tatarstan Russia). Young Leonid Filatov moved with his mother, Klavdia Nikolaevna Filatova, to the city of Ashkhabad, Tadjikistan. There he made his stage acting debut in an amateur play at a secondary school. In 1965 he came to Moscow and applied to State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but failed the entrance exam. However, his persistence and determination soon paid off, and from 1965 - 1969 Filatov studied at Schukin Theatrical School at Vakhtangov theatre, graduating in 1969, as an actor. From 1969 - 1985 and from 1987 - 1993 Filatov was a permanent member of the legendary troupe at Taganka Theatre under the leadership of director Yuri Lyubimov. There his stage partners were Vladimir Vysotskiy, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Ivan Dykhovichnyy, Natalya Sayko, Boris Galkin, and Aleksandr Porokhovshchikov among other notable Russian actors.