Andrey Myagkov was born on 8 July 1938 in Leningrad, USSR. His father, Vasily Myagkov, was a professor at
Leningrad State Technical University. Young Myagkov showed interest in theater and acting and participated in a drama club at high school. Upon his graduation from high school, he chose to study
chemistry and attended the
Lensoviet Leningrad Institute of Technology, graduating in 1961 as a
chemical engineer. His first job was an engineer-researcher at the Leningrad State Institute of Plastics. At the same time, he continued to play on stage as an amateur actor. There, his stage partners were such notable Soviet actors as
Oleg Yefremov,
Yevgeny Yevstigneyev,
Galina Volchek,
Oleg Tabakov,
Oleg Dal,
Igor Kvasha,
Valentin Gaft. One of his first stage plays was ''Uncle's Dream'' (based on
Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name) where he performed the role of the uncle. In cinema, he got his big break when director
Elem Klimov offered him the lead role in the satiric film
Adventures of a Dentist (1965). His next work in cinema was a role of Alyosha in critically acclaimed
The Brothers Karamazov (1969) based on Dostoevsky's
eponymous novel, which made him known. In 1975, he gained fame in the enormously popular comedy-drama film
The Irony of Fate as a surgeon, Zhenya Lukashin. In 1977, he starred in another Ryazanov hit,
Office Romance, as timid statistician Anatoly Novoseltsev, alongside
Alisa Freindlich, in which he also debuted as a singer. For both roles he was awarded the USSR State Prize. In 1978, he was named Best Actor by readers of
Soviet Screen. In 1977, Myagkov left the Sovremennik Theatre and joined the
Moscow Art Theatre (MKhAT), where he debuted in the leading role as Zilov in
Duck Hunt by Aleksandr Vampilov, and eventually established himself as a leading actor in many other stage productions. His other notable films are
The Days of the Turbins (1976) based on
Mikhail Bulgakov's novel,
The Garage (1979),
Vertical Race (1983),
A Cruel Romance (1984). In the 1990s, Myagkov concentrated on theatrical performances and worked as a professor at the Moscow Art Theatre school. In this period he starred in the drama
Mother (1990), Leonid Gaidai's comedy film
Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach (1992), and the detective story
Contract with Death (1998). Myagkov played over 50 roles in film and on television. In 1989, Myagkov made his debut as a director on the stage of Moscow Art Theatre with
Goodnight, Mama (
Spokoinoy nochi, Mama). In 2000 he directed a stageplay,
Retro. ==Death==