Yevgeny Mironov was born November 29, 1966 in Saratov to Vitaly and Tamara Mironov. The family lived in a small military town then called Tatischevo-5. Yevgeny's father was a professional chauffeur, his mother changed jobs – from saleswoman to a Christmas-tree ornaments manufacturer. The Mironovs, avid amateur performers, were artistic and creative people in their everyday life.
Yevgeny always dreamed of becoming an actor: as a child, he took acting classes, joined an amateur dance group and graduated from music school as an accordion player. He and his younger sister Oksana put on puppet shows for which they made their own puppets, wrote scripts and then performed in front of relatives. In school, Yevgeny put on and acted in plays and musicals, often of his own creation. Oksana Mironova, now a ballet dancer, studied at the Saratov School of Choreography and later at the St. Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy. After graduating, she was invited to join the State Academic Theater of Classical Ballet, where she danced for 10 years. At present, she is teaching in her own ballet studio associated with the Russian State Social University.
In 1982, Yevgeny left his school in Tatischevo-5 to enter the Slonov Drama School of Saratov, one of the few such establishments that accepted 14-year-olds, which he graduated in 1986. Offered a job with the Saratov Children's Theater, he chose instead to continue to study acting at the prestigious Moscow Art Theater Studio School under his famous Saratov compatriot, actor and director Oleg Tabakov. In Moscow Yevgeny succeeded in getting an interview with Tabakov, but the acting class was already in its second year. Tabakov gave Yevgeny a probation period, after the successful completion of which he was accepted to the Studio School as a sophomore. After graduating in 1990, he became a resident actor at the Oleg Tabakov Theater. In that capacity he has played a variety of notable parts, including the title role in the hit The Passions of Bumbarash (directed by Vladimir Mashkov), which opened in 1993 and played to full houses until it closed in June of 2011.
Yevgeny's film career began in 1988 with the Aleksandr Kaydanovsky film The Kerosene Seller's Wife. After appearing in a few low-budget films, Yevgeny gained national recognition and critical acclaim for his lead performance in Valery Todorovsky's beloved coming-of-age drama, Love (1991), for which he received several national and international film awards and was voted Best Actor of 1992 by Russian film critics. His next success was in Pyotr Todorovsky's comedy-drama Encore Again!, which solidified Yevgeny's popularity. He went on to play leads in Denis Yevstigneyev's acclaimed Limita (The Provincials) and Mama, and to receive a Best Supporting Actor award at the 1995 Sozvezdie International Film Festival for a special appearance in Nikita Mikhalkov's Oscar-winning Burnt by the Sun. In 1994 Yevgeny delivered a sterling performance in Vladimir Khotinenko's controversial drama Moslem, then considered his best work to date. Also notable among his early film efforts is the character of Khlestakov in Sergei Gazarov's screen adaptation of Gogol's The Inspector General.
Today Yevgeny Mironov is a superstar of the Russian cinema. Among his memorable creations are such varied characters as a sinister mama's boy in Nikolai Lebedev's Snake Spring, a lovelorn sponger in His Wife's Diary and a naive Soviet cook in Dreaming of Space (both directed by Aleksei Uchitel), the deceptively simple intelligence officer in Mikhail Ptashouk's August of '44, the man-turned-bug in Valery Fokin's adaptation of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a war-deranged soldier in Andrei Konchalovsky's House of Fools, an arrogant surgeon in Yegor Konchalovsky's Escape, a talented loser in Konstantin Khoudyakov's On Upper Maslovka, and a millionaire psycho killer in Andrei Kavoun's The Hunt for Piranha. 2003 saw Yevgeny's astonishing portrayal of Prince Myshkin in Vladimir Bortko's historymaking TV adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, followed by leads in two other acclaimed TV productions – as the young Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in an adaptation of his autobiographical The First Circle/To Treasure Forever by Gleb Panfilov (2006), and as twin brothers in Yuri Moroz's action-adventure miniseries The Apostle (2008). In 2010, critics gave high praise to Yevgeny's special appearance in Nikita Mikhalkov's long-awaited Burnt by the Sun 2. Exodus and delighted in the voice he lent to the character of Venya the space-flying rat in the animated Belka and Strelka, Star Dogs. Yevgeny also appeared in the anthology film Moscow, I Love You!, which opened in September 2010. In May 2011 he was seen in the title role in the television project Dostoyevsky; still ahead is a guest appearance in the miniseries The Diamondchasers.
By the mid-1990s, Yevgeny was also shining on the Russian stage. He starred in such legendary international projects as German director Peter Stein's The Oresteia and Hamlet, Declan Donnellan's Boris Godunov, Valery Fokin's The Last Night of the Last Czar and The Karamazovs and Hell (for which he was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation). In 2003 he appeared as Lopakhin in Eimuntas Nekrošius' celebrated production of The Cherry Orchard. Yevgeny actively collaborates with the Moscow Art Theater, where he has appeared as Treplev (The Seagull, 2001-2006), George Pigden (№13 (Out of Order), 2001), and Porfiry Golovlyov (The Golovlyovs, 2005). In 2006 he founded The Yevgeny Mironov Theater Company and produced Figaro. The Events of One Day, directed by the controversial Kirill Serebrennikov with Yevgeny as the lead. In December 2006, he was appointed Artistic Director of the State Theater of Nations in Moscow, and received the honor of being made a People's Artist of the Russian Federation in 2005. In the 2009-10 season, the Theater of Nations' hit show Shukshin's Stories was honored with both of Russia's major theater awards, the Crystal Turandot and the Golden Mask, in a variety of categories including Best Production and Best Actor for Yevgeny. Eimuntas Nekrošius' staging of Albert Camus' Caligula for the Theater of Nations with Yevgeny in the title role premiered in Moscow and Rome in 2011. This season he stars in the Theater of Nation's new production of Miss Julie, directed by Germany's Thomas Ostermeier.
In addition to his artistic endeavors, Yevgeny Mironov is active in public service and charity work. Since 2004 he has served on the Presidential Council on Arts and Culture, established to advise the head of the Russian Federation on cultural matters. On Yevgeny's initiative and with the support of the Presidential Administration, the annual Action in Support of Theatrical Initiatives, a monetary prize, was introduced in 2003. Yevgeny is among the organizers of the TERRITORIЯ International School-Festival of Contemporary Arts and the founder of The Artist Fund to benefit retired actors and the Not-for-Profit National Theatrical Incentives Fund. He actively participates in a number of other charitable and fundraising projects.
Yevgeny Mironov lives and works in Moscow, Russia.
YEVGENY MIRONOV'S AWARDS AND PRIZES:
Best Actor Award, Kinotaur National Film Festival (Love, 1992)
Best Actor Award, Sozvezdie International Film Festival (Love, 1992)
