Theatre In 1946, after graduating from the State Institute, Papanov left for
Klaipėda,
Lithuanian SSR, along with other students. There, they founded the Klaipėda Russian Drama Theatre, where he performed for several years. In 1948,
Andrey Goncharov suggested he join the
Moscow Satire Theatre, where he continued to act up until his death, performing in about 50 plays. Among his popular roles were Alexander Koreiko in
The Little Golden Calf (1958), Kisa Vorobyaninov in
The Twelve Chairs (1960, both based on the novels by
Ilf and Petrov), Vasily Tyorkin in
Aleksandr Tvardovsky's
Tyorkin in the Other World (1966), Anton Antonovich in
Nikolai Gogol's
The Government Inspector (1972), Nikolai Shubin in
Grigori Gorin's and
Arkady Arkanov's
Little Comedies of the Big House (1973), Pavel Famusov in
Alexander Griboyedov's
Woe from Wit (1976), Roman Khludov in
Mikhail Bulgakov's
Flight (1977), Leonid Gayev in
Anton Chekhov's
The Cherry Orchard (1984), and others. Apart from performing, Papanov also taught acting at the
Russian Institute of Theatre Arts, and in 1986 he staged his first and last play,
The Last Ones by
Maxim Gorky. Being a devout
Christian, Papanov wanted to end the play with a prayer. To avoid possible censorship, he used a radio record of
Feodor Chaliapin performing a prayer. Papanov became very famous, however, after his work as General Serpilin in
Aleksandr Stolper's war drama
The Living and the Dead (1964). For this role he was awarded the
Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR and the main prize at the First
All-Union Film Festival, and
Konstantin Simonov personally lauded his work. In 1966, Eldar Ryazanov released
Beware of the Car, in which Papanov appeared alongside his friend
Andrei Mironov, with Mironov as a modern-day
black marketeer, and Papanov as his father-in-law, a war veteran who mocks him all the way through. Its popularity led
Leonid Gaidai to cast them in his 1968 comedy
The Diamond Arm as the main antagonists, a pair of smugglers who tried to get their hands on the hero's "diamond arm". The film was seen by 76.7 million people in the year of release, becoming the
third most popular Soviet movie of all time. In 1971, Gaidai also considered casting both actors for the leading parts in his adaptation of
The Twelve Chairs, but decided otherwise. In 1976,
Mark Zakharov directed
his own TV adaptation of the book and eventually cast both actors in the leading roles, reuniting them for the last time. Papanov was also highly sought after by
animation directors. His distinguishing growling voice suited all kinds of beasts such as
Shere Khan from
Adventures of Mowgli (1967), a Soviet adaptation of
The Jungle Book. His most popular characters, though, were wolves, especially after he voiced the Wolf character in the top-rated animated series
Well, Just You Wait! (1969—1986), which has been considered his best role, overshadowing all of his other work, to his great displeasure. ==Death and memory==