Nikolai Kryuchkov was born to a working-class family in Moscow on December 24, 1910 (
N. S. January 6, 1911). At the age of 14, he entered the
professional technical school at the Trekhgornaya textile factory. There, he studied to be an engraver, and it was there where he began playing in amateur theatre. He made his theatrical debut in 1927 in the production of a play titled
1905. From 1928 to 1933, he performed as an actor at the Moscow Central Theater of Working Youth (; presently
Lenkom). He studied acting under
Nikolai Khmelyov,
Ilya Sudakov and
Igor Savchenko. His film debut was the role of the shoemaker Senka in
Boris Barnet's film
Outskirts (1933). Since 1934, he worked as an actor at the
Mezhrabpomfilm film studio (since 1936 named Soyuzdetfilm, since 1948 known as the
Gorky Film Studio). When the
Great Patriotic War began, he wanted to enlist in the army, but the military registration and enlistment office refused him, deeming that his country needed him more as an actor. In 1941–1945, he worked as an actor at the
Mosfilm film studio and the Central United Film Studio (; presently
Kazakhfilm). Since 1945, he worked as an actor at the
Theatre Studio of Film Actors. In 1953, he joined the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was also a member of the
Soviet Filmmakers' Union. In 1987, he published a book titled
What a Man Lives By. In total, over the years, he acted in about 130 films. He died on April 13, 1994, in Moscow and was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery. ==Selected filmography==